TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said he is “leaning towards” imposing a complete ban on e-scooters.

In the Dáil today, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald asked Martin what the government would do to address the “scourge” of e-scooters and scrambler motorbikes.

People are “sick to the back teeth of gangs of people” on scramblers and e-scooters in Dublin city centre and elsewhere around the country. 

“Not enough is being done to face down this scourge,” McDonald said. 

“Real harm and real damage is being done.”

She asked how it is possible that people “can walk into a toy store” and buy an e-scooter and questions why people who buy them are not required to register them, or get a licence to use them.  

“When is this going to change?” McDonald asked.

She specifically asked when gardaí would be given the training and resources needed to pursue people on e-scooters and scramblers.

Martin insisted there have been thousands of scramblers and e-scooters seized and that transport minister Seán Canney was working on legislation “to ensure gardaí are protected” when pursuing people on them. 

He noted that scramblers are already banned on public roads and said Canney was “looking at all options in terms of e-scooters”, which could include regulation or an outright ban, “which I’m leaning towards myself”.

“People are fed up with it and people have had enough of this,” Martin said.

The law banning scramblers from all public places, Grace’s Law, came into effect in April.

It was named after Grace Lynch, a teenage girl who was killed when she was struck by a scrambler in Finglas last January. Grace’s parents were in the public gallery in the Dáil today and received a welcome and applause. 

They will be appearing before an Oireachtas committee later today, which will hear that four people have died and 59 others have been seriously injured in road collisions involving scrambler bikes since the beginning of 2021.