Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 13:

In page 13, lines 44 and 45, to delete subsection (10).

This is a fairly fundamental amendment that proposes to delete lines 44 and 45, which read as follows: "The licensing authority may, when granting a licence, attach such terms and conditions to the licence as it sees fit." As I said previously, that is what happened with SI 250 of 2010, in which the conditions for new entrants were made so onerous - by directing them to wheelchair-accessible vehicles, so that it cost them much more to enter the business than it cost incumbents - that they constituted a barrier to entry and contravened the decision of the courts to open up the sector. It is too open and draconian and the track record is bad on using it. It will be and has been used to set up barriers to new entrants. We previously asked the Minister whether he would accept an amendment that would ensure quantity licensing was not reintroduced. He said he would not reintroduce it, but that he would not accept the amendment. Again, the regulatory impact assessment makes no reference to this or to the four court decisions we spoke about. If this is a way to keep out new entrants, I will keep proposing the amendment, because the Bill gives the body a power that contradicts the decisions of the courts. My legal advice is that one cannot use legislation that is at variance with or seeks to set aside, undermine or negate the decisions of the courts. Quantity licensing was reintroduced by SI 250 of 2010, and this was the wrong decision.