TRANSPORT MINISTER DARRAGH O’Brien has said government will move to legislate to allow gardaí pursue those on scramblers. 

The minister will today sign regulations banning scramblers in all public spaces from Friday.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly yesterday called for “legislative change” after a garda member was prosecuted for dangerous driving over an illegal scrambler chase.

This week, Garda Sean Shields was convicted after having denied a charge of dangerous driving.

The charge arose from an incident in May 2024 when he followed two masked men on scramblers.

Shields had said he was doing his best to try to tackle the “scourge” of scramblers in Dublin.

He was convicted in Dublin District Court of dangerous driving and was banned from driving for two years and handed a €500 fine.

This followed a complaint made to the Garda Ombudsman, Fiosrú.

It’s understood that Shields will appeal the decision.

O’Brien comments on calls from Garda Commissioner to legislate after Garda was punished in pursuit case - minister says Gardai must be allowed do their jobs.

He says this matter will be dealt with and he’s spoken to the justice minister already around changes needed pic.twitter.com/EI4keBvLtk

— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) April 1, 2026

Asked about the case, O’Brien said he was “taken aback” by the court ruling

He said he had met with Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan in relation to the issue on Tuesday.

“This needs to be dealt with. I don’t want to reach into decisions of the judiciary, but I will say as a citizen, I was taken aback by that judgment,” he said.

“Our guards need to be able to carry out their duties without fear or favour. They’re well-trained, they know how to pursue criminals, they need to be able to do that.

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“Obviously, judges have discretion in relation to making their judgments, and that’s something that I respect, but we will deal with this.”

The garda commissioner said yesterday that it does “not appear to me to be right” that a garda responding to a “really serious” call is treated the “exact same way” as an incident of “bad driving”.

“A member of An Garda Síochána – who goes through a red light with blue lights and sirens on, is responding to a really serious call for service, and is involved in a collision – is treated the exact same way as if you or I, off duty, crashed through a red light because of bad driving.”

Speaking about the ban on scramblers law, coming into effect on Friday, O’Brien said to honour the memory of Grace Lynch, who was killed in an incident involving a scrambler, and with the permission of her family, the legislation will be known as ‘Grace’s Law’.

“I hope that Grace’s name will be as a reminder to all of us that dangerous road use puts the lives of our friends, neighbours and families at risk,” he said.