Once again, the courts have had to draw the attention of the Coalition Government to its responsibility under the Constitution to treat all citizens equally and to ensure that vested interests, such as the Dublin taxi lobby, do not dictate public policy. The High Court has found that the Government does not have the power to regulate the number of taxi licences. And it ruled that the Government's proposal to increase the number of taxi licences by a certain limited number, to be allocated in a particular way and for a set price, discriminated against hackney drivers and against a public demand for more taxis. The outcome yesterday was not surprising and it carried a clear message for that other well-established and politically powerful cartel, the pub owners, that the days of its hegemony may be numbered.
The Dublin taxi lobby has fought long and hard against deregulation. The benign regard of Fianna Fail and the unwillingness of other major political parties to confront a powerful vested interest while in government has brought considerable success for the taxi owners. The result is a ramshackle taxi service in a capital city that has pretensions to being both modern and efficient. The travelling public has become increasingly frustrated and angry over delays in securing taxis during weekdays and having to wait interminably at weekends. Visiting businessmen experience severe difficulty in finding transport to ferry them to and from the airport. People contemplating a night out cannot rely on a service that citizens in other EU states take for granted.
Mr Justice Murphy will not make final orders in the matter until he hears submissions from lawyers involved in the case in two weeks time. At that stage, he may clarify the implications of his judgment for other contentious areas, such as the exclusion of hackneys from bus lanes and the restriction that they cannot pick up fares in the street. But the kernel of his judgment strikes down the presumption by the Minister for the Environment to restrict the number of licences. In that regard, Mr Justice Murphy ruled: "a quantitative restriction not alone affects the rights of citizens to work in an industry for which they may be qualified but it also manifestly affects the right of the public to the services of taxis and, indeed, restricts the development of the taxi industry itself". The only areas in which the Minister was found to have competence relate to the quality of the transport provided and the standards required by a driver to qualify for a licence.
Almost a year ago, following pressure in Government from the Progressive Democrats, Minister of State Mr Bobby Molloy announced details of a scheme designed to double the number of taxi licences in Dublin within a six-month period. It was a grudging political compromise between Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats designed to protect, so far as possible, the interests of existing licence holders in circumstances of growing public annoyance. But a legal challenge to its terms by hackney drivers prevented its implementation. And yesterday's High Court judgment rendered it a dead letter.
Rather than attempt to fudge the issue and pander once again to the owners, the Coalition Government should now make a clean break and deregulate taxis. It is already committed to spending thousands of millions of pounds on public transport systems in Dublin involving bus and rail services and in opening up these services to competition. The feather-bedding of taxi plate owners should also end. And as quickly as possible.