EIRE

Three taxi drivers, who took a case against the Government in relation to the sudden deregulation of the taxi market in 2000, have had their case dismissed today.

The drivers argued that the change completely devalued the taxi plates from almost €100,000 to practically zero.

The case was dismissed in the High Court today by Mr Justice Michael Peart.

The judge apologised for the two-year delay in giving a judgement on the case, which involved 13 boxes of documents and 30 days evidence in the High Court.

If the case has been won by the taxi drivers, a further 1,400 drivers would have been affected and there would have been serious costs for the State.

The drivers were hoping to claim industry-wide compensation of up to €360m.

It is not yet known if the three drivers will have to pay the costs of the 30-day High Court case.

Tommy Gorman, former president of the National Taxi Drivers Union, said that the judgement will be scrutinised to see if there are grounds for appeal.

“Obviously, our legal team are looking at that now,” he said.

“As I say, 140 pages contain an awful lot of words and sentences. They’ll look at it and then we’re going to look [to see if] have we any grounds for an appeal - to take it back to the Appeals Court, and then maybe on to the Supreme [Court] and then maybe on to Europe.”