The hearing of an application by the National Taxi Drivers' Union and two of its officers for leave to challenge the plan to deregulate the industry opened yesterday. It will resume in the High Court on Tuesday.
The application was heard over two hours by Mr Justice Kelly. When it adjourned at 4 p.m., Mr John Rogers SC, for the NTDU, its general secretary, Mr Thomas Gorman, and vice-president, Mr Vincent Kearns, had not completed his opening submissions.
Mr Rogers will continue his submissions on Tuesday. Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, for the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy, will respond.
The NTDU and its leaders want leave to seek declarations that the November regulations regarding the industry were made outside the powers of Mr Molloy and that the State has no power to regulate the licensing of public service vehicles in such a manner as to interfere with the judicial powers of the courts, as exercised in recent proceedings by hackney drivers against the Minister.
In those proceedings, the High Court overturned regulations made early this year for the distribution of additional taxi licences. That decision is being appealed to the Supreme Court by taxi-drivers but is unlikely to be heard for some time.
The NTDU, Mr Gorman and Mr Kearns also want leave to seek a declaration that the November regulations constitute an attack on the property rights of taxi-drivers and are unconstitutional.
The NTDU case rests on three arguments. They say the new regulations should not have been introduced while a High Court decision of last October quashing earlier regulations was under appeal. They also claim the new regulations unlawfully interfere with their constitutional rights to property and that they were entitled to an opportunity to make representations to Mr Molloy before he introduced them.
Mr Rogers said if the High Court decision was set aside and Statutory Instrument 3 - relating to earlier regulations - was found valid on appeal, drivers would be without licences because of the later regulations made under Statutory Instrument 367. By introducing SI367, Mr Molloy revoked SI3.
In an affidavit, Mr Gorman said under SI3 it was proposed to issue an additional licence to each existing taxi licence-holder. Most NDTU members had applied for such licences by the closing date, February 20th.
Before any licences could issue, a number of hackney drivers brought proceedings.