In the debate in the other House reference was made to the policy pursued in the Dublin taxi meter area prior to liberalisation. There is, by implication, a reference in the contributions of Senators Tuffy and Brady to the same issue. Dublin City Council and its sister councils were involved in commendable actions in the late 1990s on the issue of new taxi licences. The rate of annual issue of new licences was reduced as a direct result of a recommendation from the local authorities in the report of the Dublin taxi forum. That resulted in the issue of taxi licences over a four year period, to give a total of 3,500 taxi licences by the end of 2002. By the end of 1999 the Government considered that the growth in demand for taxi services would not be met by the pace at which licences were being granted within the Dublin taxi meter area. This was, as Senator Brady outlined, because of the exponential growth of traffic within the city area and the growth of population. It was against that background that the Government promoted a scheme which had the potential to give an increase of over 3,100 taxi licences in one year. That initiative, which was introduced by a previous Minister, was the subject of the High Court challenge which led to the judgment that the retention of quantative restrictions on taxi numbers could not be sustained. We might all have our views on the appropriateness of the judgment but that is the law as handed down by the courts. This legislation and the measures it contains flow directly from the court judgment. It was not simply a ministerial whim which led us into the current situation. It was a combination of events.