QUESTION: How many convicted terrorists can you fit behind the wheel of a taxi?

Answer: None, according to the government.

An amendment to the Taxi Regulation Bill, tabled last week by Sinn Féin TD Sean Crowe, proposing that former paramilitary prisoners now on "complete and unequivocal ceasefire" should be exempted from the restrictions on persons with a serious conviction driving a taxi, was rejected without debate by the Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan.

Having sought to remove unaccompanied provisional licence holders from the road last year, Brennan apparently wasn't keen on the prospect of a different set of 'provisionals' driving accompanied around the country's highways and byways.

"It was never really a runner, " a government source said this weekend.

However, it's not completely a case of 'ní thiocfaidh ár car' for former political prisoners wishing to drive a taxi.

In the interests of natural justice, they can go before the District Court and plead their case before a judge and taxi industry sources see little reason why those now on the straight and narrow will not be accommodated.

As with all taxi drivers, they will, however, be restricted to just four passengers in the car, ruling out the possibility of carrying a fifth person in the boot.