“I had a woman in the car the other day who left the Mater Hospital after waiting 26 hours to see somebody,” says David McGuinness, a Dublin taxi driver of 23 years. “There was something wrong with her stomach, she didn’t know what, but her GP advised her to go to the A&E,” the Swords native says, adding that the woman opted to leave and return to her GP rather than wait any longer to be seen.
“If this is happening when we’ve had money for the last 10 or 12 years, what’s it going to be like when the money dries up” Mr McGuinness, who was one of several taxi drivers to share their views with The Irish Times ahead of the general election, is concerned that voters will be “fooled” by the “Simon Harris bounce”.
He explains that the outgoing Taoiseach is promising voters “the sun, moon and stars after 10 years in Government”. “They only remember the last six months, rather than the last 10 years,” he says, believing voters were “bought off” with the recent budget, “yet their children can’t buy homes and there’s mass emigration from educated people because they can’t get on the housing ladder”: https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2024/11/13/i-cant-even-get-a-plumber-how-are-they-going-to-build-those-houses-dublin-taxi-drivers-give-their-verdict-on-election-pledges/