Taxi plates stall bid fails
By JOHN MADDOCK
THE National Taxi Drivers' Union failed to get a temporary High Court
order yesterday restraining the issue of further licences between now and the
resumption on January 11 of the taxi operators' action against the State's
decision to deregulate licences.
The application was made during the third day's hearing of the judicial
review proceedings taken by the NTDU.
Thomas Gorman, general secretary of the NTDU, said in an affidavit that under
the regulations introduced some months ago by the Minister for State at the
Department of the Environment, Mr Molloy, licensing authorities automatically
issued licences to all applicants who paid a fee of £5,000 in respect of an
ordinary licence and £100 in respect of a wheelchair accessible licence.
Mr Gorman said they had asked licensing authorities to desist from issuing
licences pending the outcome of the NTDU challenge in the High Court. It was now
apparent the court hearing could not decide the claim before the Christmas
vacation. An injunction had not been sought before yesterday because the
taximen's challenge to deregulation had got an early trial date and they were
not sure as to the rate which licences would be applied for and would be issued.
Mr Gorman said he had learned with alarm on Wednesday that 1,810 applications
for new licences had been made to Dublin Corporation and that applications were
being received at the rate of 129 a day. Unless the court preserved the status
quo it would not be in a position to provide an effective remedy for taxi
drivers.
Mr Justice Paul Carney refusing the application for an interim injunction
said he had understood the taximen's challenge to the new regulations had been
fixed on the basis that there would be no application for restraining orders.
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