E-scooter safety and insurance
Deputy Gogarty raised concerns that newly regulated e-scooters are still being used dangerously on footpaths and asked for end-of-year review and insurance changes. The Taoiseach agreed the concerns were legitimate and said he would ask the Transport Minister and Justice Minister to review the issue.
We saw recently the implementation of the new legislation on e-scooters. It needs to bed in, but I want to lay down a marker for the end of the year. At the moment, if a scooter weighs a maximum of 25 kg, travels at speeds of less than 20 km/h and has a certain wheel diameter, it is considered a personal transporter and not a vehicle that requires licensing. Anecdotally, however, I have seen situations where these 20 km/h scooters are going at speed on footpaths with impunity, as per our discussion on anti-social behaviour last week. In that context, could we look at, by the end of the year, designating them as vehicles that need licences or insurance or having some form of registration plate at the back of them so they can be identified if someone brushes past someone?
Comment on this
The other issue would be the reviewing of insurance if someone crashes into someone else.
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. He is raising very legitimate concerns and I will ask the Minister for Transport to review this. I will also ask him to consult the Minister for justice in respect of any road traffic regulations and laws. I saw a situation yesterday evening. I could not believe my eyes. There were two guys on a scooter and a guy on a bike was hanging on to them to get propulsion on a main road, Baggot Street. I was saying to myself, "What is this about?" One could see the obvious safety concerns or safety implications and the dangers for someone driving behind them and so on.
We are trying to be reasonable in terms of regulation and regulatory frameworks but there are limits. The Deputy is correct. If there is not a regulatory framework, these scooters will be abused and danger will result. There have been fatalities, one very recently, the Minister for justice has informed me, of a young person. We need to be very careful about all of this.