BYLAWS REGULATING Killarney’s jarvey trade have been passed at the town council.
A requirement that horse carriages must have installed “a suitable dung catcher”, over which controversy raged for a decade, passed without a murmur.
Earlier this year the jarveys lost a High Court challenge to Green Party Minister John Gormley and the National Parks and Wildlife Service requiring them to fit the device in the park where they work.
The jarveys said they feared the devices would be unsafe. However the discreet bags have proved a resounding success. The pressure is now on the jarveys to don a uniform, said Cllr Niall O’Callaghan.
He welcomed the decision by one group to wear similar fleeces, but said he would prefer the adoption of “a grandfather shirt and waistcoat”. Simply putting on “cowboy hats” did not represent a uniform, he cautioned.
The new laws ban the jarveys from two of the Co Kerry town’s principal streets. The laws stipulate that hackney carriages must be driven at reasonable speed and they also lay down rules about the character of the horse. Law No 14 states: “Horses used shall have a temperament and be in a physical condition and of an age suitable for such work.”
The horses cannot be left unattended at the jarvey stands.
They are the third set of bylaws since the 19th century.
The council rejected a submission by the Jarvey Association for a hackney inspectorate.