LAST UPDATE | 15 Jul

GARDA COMMISSIONER JUSTIN Kelly said he “absolutely” supports an outright ban on e-scooters on Irish roads.

Appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Transport this afternoon, Kelly said while gardaí will police “whatever legislation is in place”, he would support an outright ban.

He said e-scooters are being used to facilitate localised drug dealing in communities and can make it easier to evade gardaí.

He said he had recently seen two gardaí who were injured on duty, one seriously, while intercepting drug dealing on e-scooters.

“It just shows the challenges that we face around it,” he added.

He acknowledged that while “certainly there are people who use them very safely and responsibly”, it is the experience of gardaí that “there is just so much bad behaviour”.

“It’s not like it’s limited bad behaviour. There is so much bad behaviour with them.”

He continued: “All our experience and all the reporting coming up to me is even around very decent people.

“Law-abiding, working, young students, even people like that, are using them badly.

“It’s nearly the exception to see people who have a high-vis jacket, a helmet on, behaving really responsibly, stopping at the junctions; it’s nearly the exception to see that in parts of the city now.”

He said that he had come to his opinion on a total ban because “when I look at it in totality, the balance of it has tipped so far”.

Outlining the issues with regulating e-scooters, Kelly said: “My understanding is that it’s not possible to get these vehicles insured”.

He added that while it would be useful for gardaí to have them registered and licensed, there are already “many, many, many thousands of them already in existence” and it would be “quite challenging” to do this retrospectively.

Kelly’s comments come ahead of a meeting between government leaders next week to consider what regulations to impose on the use of e-scooters. 

The Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Minister of State Sean Canney and Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien will meet to consider a number of proposals, including requiring owners to register, insure and tax the vehicles. 

The meeting comes after Micheal Martin said on Tuesday that he is “leaning towards” imposing a complete ban on e-scooters.

He was responding to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald who 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, she said. 

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.

Aside from registration, tax and insurance requirements, government leaders will also discuss mandating personal protective equipment (PPE) for e-scooter and e-bike users.

The Taoiseach has said O’Brien is working on legislation “to ensure gardaí are protected” when pursuing people on such vehicles.

This is an issue that was raised by Kelly on Tuesday, who told an Oireachtas committee that there are currently 10 gardaí before the courts for alleged dangerous driving or careless driving incidents which happened during the course of their duty.

“It certainly has a chilling effect on the rest of the organisation,” he said. 

Additional reporting by PA