The Minister for Transport, Séamus Brennan, has announced that taxi drivers will be required to wear seat belts in their cabs from next Thursday.
In a statement, the Minister said he was removing the exemption under the current law that allows taxi, hackney and limousine drivers not to wear seat belts.
The Irish Taxi Drivers Federation, which has 3,000 members, is opposed to the change, which it says will make drivers more vulnerable to attacks from passengers. The president of the union, John Usher, said they were particularly concerned that seat belts would be used to choke drivers.
Earlier, in a statement announcing the move, Mr Brennan said that there was overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness of the belts in preventing death and reducing serious injury in road accidents, and that the exemption could no longer be justified.
