Taxonomy_access function gone missing, still referenced in readme

My apologies if this has been addressed already..

I'm writing some custom code elsewhere in Drupal, and would like to ask the Taxonomy Access module if a specific user has a specific permission for the particular term id in question.

The Readme.txt file references the function taxonomy_access(), which no longer exists in the module's code. It disappeared on Nov 5, 2005.

If this cannot be restored in some form, can anybody explain how I could create an alternative to this?

Thanks!!