The Taoiseach insisted the Government was continuing with its plans to deregulate the taxi industry and insisted that there was unity within the Coalition on the issue.

Mr Ahern was speaking in the Dail, on the Order of Business, as the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Molloy, met representatives of the taxi industry elsewhere in Leinster House. He said Mr Molloy was putting forward the "agreed position of the entire Government, and the Ministers of State and the respective parties, to deal with this particular issue".

He said he hoped the discussions were meaningful, adding: "It is the Government's wish to try to make progress in this area. We have made our decisions on the matter, and we are not moving away from that."

Earlier, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, challenged the Taoiseach to comment on remarks, critical of the deregulation, reportedly made by the Minister of State for Education, Mr Willie O'Dea.

"The Government was unwillingly forced into action by the courts. It was the courts that governed this issue. Now that the Government is acting in accordance with the courts, we see members of the Government, uncorrected and unreprimanded by the Taoiseach, as they undermine their colleagues.

"What is the position of Deputy O'Dea in this matter?"

The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said Mr Ahern should clearly state what his view was of Mr O'Dea's statements, Mr Ahern said: "It is quite clear that there can only be one Government view on this. There is only one position that anyone can support, and Deputy O'Dea supports that position."

When Mr Bruton described Mr Ahern's remarks as a joke, the Taoiseach said, referring to Mr O'Dea: "He does now."