Review to examine laws on taxi licences

A GOVERNMENT review of the taxi industry will examine the law to see if there are ways to refuse criminals from obtaining a licence — and even take back licences from criminals who already have one.

The high-profile review — due to report within four months — will be chaired by Public and Commuter Transport Minister Alan Kelly, with former Garda commissioner Pat Byrne acting as vice-chairman.

Mr Kelly said they will also be examining the law to see if the Government can legally reduce the number of taxis on the roads.

He said the current situation was “not sustainable” and “cannot be allowed to continue”.

The review follows a recent Prime Time report on illegal and dangerous activity within the industry.

“The level of fraud and criminal behaviour that’s out there — and that has been shown to us in very stark ways [by Prime Time] — needs to be cut out and cut out quite dramatically and we intend to do so,” said Mr Kelly.

He said the three “top line” issues in the review, which has 12 areas in the terms of reference, are:

* The licensing process, particularly concerns around the operation of multiple licences.

* Enforcement, with a “considerable” increase envisaged in the involvement of gardaí.

* Vehicle standards, to ensure they are fit for purpose

Mr Kelly said the review would be “posing a number of legal questions” to the Attorney General (AG), the Government’s legal advisor.

These include examining if taxi numbers could be legally reduced and whether people with certain criminal convictions could be lawfully barred from the industry.

“There are questions to the Attorney General, one is the manner in which you can prevent somebody from gaining a taxi licence and ensure we have proper regulatory structures and legislation in place to ensure that those who are applying for licences, who have a criminal conviction of a certain type will no longer be able to gain them. Hopefully that will be backed up by the courts,” said Mr Kelly.

He said you would need “some form of scaling” in categorising offences, which would bar applicants.

Mr Kelly said he hoped to expand this power to removing existing licences from criminals: “It’s absolutely my intention to look at that seriously, to try to impose such sanctions. I believe that is absolutely necessary.”

Despite the complex legal issues being examined, the review committee, while containing representatives from the taxi industry, consumer sector, regulatory authorities and the gardaí, does not include any legal experts or officers from the AG’s office.

Mr Kelly said that, as minister, he would liaise with the AG’s office.

The minister also showed an example of a cloned taxi plate licence as an example of the type of fraud that is happening in the industry.

“This is, I believe, last chance saloon for this industry in the sense that we have got to get this right,” said Mr Kelly.