The High Court will decide at noon today whether to let taxi-drivers challenge the planned taxi industry deregulation.
Yesterday was the third day of the hearing of the application by the National Taxi Drivers' Union (NTDU) and two of its officers. Mr Justice Kelly said he would give his decision at noon today.
Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, for the State, said the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy, was not required to consult with parties before bringing in regulations or legislation. Every argument about taxis had been made exhaustively by the applicants' representatives, he said.
He asked who was to be consulted if the Minister was to consult - the taxi operators in the group represented in court or every other taxi association.
Mr O'Higgins said informal consultations may well take place in any democratic process but it was never required. Maybe it would have been better if the Minister had never consulted anybody. Cork and Mallow taxi-drivers had also taken proceedings and made the point that while the Dublin operators might have been consulted, Cork drivers had not been asked for their views.
The present case was about the applicants insistence that they were entitled to have the value of their licences "propped up" and kept by the State to the exclusion of all others who wished to operate with them, counsel argued.
Mr John Rogers SC, for the taxi-drivers, said the Minister, in revoking Statutory Instrument 3/2000, (which allowed additional licences to present taxi operators) had struck down something that was under appeal to the Supreme Court. If that court reversed last October's High Court decision upholding a challenge by hackney operators to SI 3/2000, the Supreme Court would not be able to restore his clients' position to what it was before the hackney action, because of the recent deregulation regulations. His clients believed they were being forced into significant competition and their livelihoods and the value of taxi licences were being undermined. They were not opposed to gradual liberalisation with restricted numbers. His clients' essential case was that if the Minister was seeking to change the rules as proposed, they were entitled to compensation. Not every taxi operator was entitled to the same compensation which was only to be paid in respect of losses.
A mass meeting of taxi-drivers was held in the National Stadium last night and addressed by leaders of the NTDU and the Irish Taxi Drivers' Federation, adds Clare Murphy.
Mr Vincent Kearns of the NTDU said the unions wanted the Government to enter into "reasonable, fair and honest" negotiations and believed a court victory would strengthen their position.
Mr Jack Nash of SIPTU, whose members did not take part in last night's rally, said the High Court decision would be a "defining moment" in the taxi-drivers' opposition to the Government's action.
The board of directors of Aer Rianta has postponed a decision on allowing hackney drivers to pick up customers at Dublin Airport until after the High Court decision.