Obviously it's not an excuse for violence, but it's important to remember there are always multiple sides to any argument.
Needless to say existing taxi drivers weren't very happy as a lot of them had paid around €100,000 for their license. They were effectively worthless after deregulation.
All this was great news for consumers of course. Before deregulation it was practically impossible to get a taxi in Dublin on weekend nights. I can recall queuing for hours in the cold and wet for the privilege of being dropped home.
The taxi drivers mightn't like deregulation but you can't hold the general public to ransom by operating a closed market. Of course the government should have handled the whole thing better by doing some sort of deal with the drivers who'd paid so much for licences thinking it was a long term investment.
What? What's the logical conclusion to that sentence in your mind?
Should we keep on running the war on drugs because there are so many people who make a living off of it? Should we maintain copyright law the way it is today because companies have invested so heavily in it? Should we maintain software patent law the way it is because some folks have spent billions acquiring patent portfolios?
The market got corrupted by artificial scarcity, it has to go back to a normal level, those who speculated will have to pay for it, as they are part of the problem. They know it and that's why they are so violent, they have no hope.