Taxi drivers to claim against state
A Limerick-based firm of solicitors, which has made €8m out of the army deafness cases, has signed up over 300 drivers so far.
If the cases are successful it could cost the State millions of euro and well in excess of the €15m hardship fund it announced this week for drivers hit hardest by deregulation.
Vinny Kearns of the National Taxi Drivers' union yesterday said he was encouraging all drivers who lost out to take a claim out with the solicitors firm McMahon, O'Brien, Downes of Limerick.
The claim is based partly on the grounds that, just as with property, the State treated the licence plates as an asset which were subject to a range of taxes such as capital gains tax.
Mr Kearns said he was not opposed to deregulation in itself but said the sudden manner in which it was done was unfair and has caused intense hardship.
He also rejected the Government's €15m hardship fund which he said was outrageous given that the State had made 50m from the sale of new licences since de-regulation.
The fund will offer a sliding scale of payments, ranging from €15,000 to €3,000, for people such as the surviving spouses of drivers.
Those who have claimed only the capital loss in the value of their licence are to get nothing.
Mr Kearns said licence plate holders deserved more than meagre handouts and rejected arguments that drivers were to blame for buying expensive licences at a time when the threat of de-regulation was hanging over them.
"If it was high risk we wouldn't deserve compensation but it wasn't high risk. In December 1997, the Government set up the Dublin Taxi Forum which concluded there'd be a 62% increase in the total number of taxis. Taxi drivers bought into this afterwards. Some paid as much as £120,000 for a plate," Mr Kearns said.
Transport Minister Seamus Brennan has ruled out compensation, but says the hardship fund will be implemented on a phased basis by a new national taxi regulator to be established February.
"The regulator will be asked to determine the criteria and conditions for the making of payments, having regard to the categorisation and specific recommendations identified in the report of the panel," he said.
The hardship fund will be payable under nine headings of hardship, including widowers of taxi-drivers, pensioners living off rental earnings and those struggling with large loan repayments.
The Hardship Panel, which assessed the awards, disallowed claims from almost 400 drivers who argued they had to work increased hours to make ends meet as a result of competition.
Government officials have indicated, however, that more money may be available for a small number of additional hardship cases.
