Scrambler legislation
Deputy Lahart praises recently enacted scrambler laws and says they were shaped with Garda input to allow confiscation and better enforcement. The Taoiseach credits cross-party advocacy, says most of the legislation is now commenced, and notes that scramblers should be banned in parks and pitches.
I want to reinforce the message from a previous speaker in relation to scrambler legislation. As the Taoiseach knows, I worked particularly hard in opposition, with his support, to draft a Bill around scrambler legislation between 2016 and 2020. In government, we introduced legislation which senior gardaí in Tallaght in my constituency have described as game-changing. Because senior gardaí were reluctant to engage in pursuit of people on scramblers, we asked them what laws they wanted. As far as we were concerned, we gave them the laws they were looking for, which included confiscation, as was mentioned earlier. I support a ban on scramblers on public roads, which the Taoiseach has spoken about. In my constituency, however, while they are a nuisance and a real menace on public roads, it is in public parks that they do most damage, tearing up pitches and amenity space. I ask the Taoiseach to consider that because, at the end of the day, if the Government banned them, there would still be a question of how-----
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-----to pursue them to confiscate them. That is where our laws came in.
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I appreciate that the Deputy has been consistently advocating for law on this issue. We passed the 2023 Act largely as a result of the Deputy's advocacy and that of Deputy McAuliffe, and, I have to say, others in the House. It seems that for about 85% of that legislation, the regulations were then formulated to commence and then there was one aspect, the banning. There is a pursuit policy. As the Deputy knows, pursuit policies have to be balanced with avoiding any further danger and loss of life. On public parks and pitches, scramblers should of course be banned. That is what I hope to deal with today in our meeting. I do not hope to do so; I will deal with it.