Vol. 480 No. 2
223 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for the Environment if a previous holder of a hackney plate, which was not renewed, is being discriminated against and is losing points under Heading 5 of the regulations in relation to the new taxi plates being issued by Dublin Corporation; and his views on the reason for this situation. [13479/97]
Where a licensing authority makes a determination to grant new taxi licences or wheelchair accessable taxi licences, the assessment of the applications received is a matter for that authority and I have no direct function in relation to that assessment. Where a determination is made and the number of applications received exceeds the number of licences which the licensing authority has decided to issue, the applications must be considered under the Sixth Schedule of the Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulations, 1995, as amended by the Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulations, 1997. Subject to certain exceptions, points are awarded by licensing authorities to holders of hackney licences whose addresses are in the taximeter area in question or who can satisfy the licensing authority that they provided a hackney service in the taximeter area. Points are allocated for each full year in respect of which the licence was held.
The renewal of a hackney licence is a matter for the licence holder, who has a period of six months, following the date of expiry of the licence, to renew it.
