A taxi firm based in Trim operated without having a taxi licence on two occasions in 2022 and 2024 a court has been told. Trim Taxi and Hackney Service Ltd with an address at Mornington Heights, Trim was prosecuted by the National Transport Authority for failure to have the appropriate licence. Two summonses against the firm’s owner Adrian Byrne of Manorlands Crescent, Trim were withdrawn at Navan District Court.
Barrister George Maguire, Coughlan White solicitors acting for the National Transport Authority said the company had come to the attention of the NTA in relation to breaches and a number of letters had been written to the company in 2022 and 2024 indicating that it was operating in an unlicensed capacity. An inspector for NTA made contact by text with the firm’s owner in 2025 asking about the
availability of transport from Athboy to Dunboyne College of Further Education. On 30 th September last the inspector was collected by minibus from Athboy.
The driver indicated that the fare would be €60 per week for the service. The minibus dropped the inspector to Trim where he was collected by a larger coach. When they got to Dunboyne he identified himself as an NTA officer and enquired as
to whether the service was authorised. He discovered it wasn’t and a letter was then sent to the firm and there was no confirmation from the firm as to whether it was licensed or not.
The barrister said that the firm had previously come to the attention of NTA by operating a taxi without a licence and in court in Dublin had been directed to pay a donation to charity along with the payment of costs.
Defending solicitor Maurice Regan said he was instructed that the vehicle concerned had been off the road and the vehicle licence had lapsed. The vehicle had been repaired. He said the firm had been contacted by the college to provide a service and had then been approached by a number of students to provide a service from Athboy. It was not economically viable at the time but it looked as if it might be and he started the service. He had applied for the route licence and that was acknowledged. He had no licence for the particular route but had what was called a “general” licence, the solicitor said.
The vehicles themselves were licensed and had Psv and Cvr. It was the route itself that the firm had no licence for, Mr Regan added.
The application fee was €100 and the licence itself cost €200. There had been a delay between the application being made in October and the acknowledgement of the application in January. Mr Regan said that as of last Thursday the matter was still outstanding.
Mr Byrne said from the body of the court that a query from the licensing authority was still outstanding. He believed a resolution of that query was “imminent”.
Judge Eirinn McKiernan said the licensing process seemed to be a very convoluted and complicated process. It seemed to her that a person setting out to provide a service had to be licensed themselves, then the vehicle itself had to be licensed and a third leg was that the route itself had to be licensed.
Mr Regan said that his client could have sought discovery documents but did not do that and wanted to deal with the matter straight away. The judge imposed a fine of €300 with €750 costs on one of the summonses and took another summons into account.
