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THE MINISTER OF State for Transport has denied that new regulations being drafted to ban scramblers from public roads are performative.
In a tricky interview with Newstalk’s Anton Savage this morning, Seán Canney said it is important that the “ambiguity” around scramblers is removed, though he was unable to clarify how the new regulations would differ from laws already in place.
There has been a renewed focus on the use of scramblers from the Government following the death of 16-year-old Grace Lynch, who was hit and killed by a scrambler bike on 25 January.
Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien will today bring a memo to Cabinet to enable the drafting of regulations to explicitly prohibit the use of scramblers in all public places, including roads.
It’s understood O’Brien also intends to amend existing regulations to “streamline” the process for confiscating and destroying seized scramblers and to make it easier to destroy these vehicles once they are seized by gardaí.
Existing legislation already prohibits the illegal use of scramblers in public places, such as dangerous driving and no insurance.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Seán Canney acknowledged that there is existing legislation in place, adding that enforcement of that “is a key priority”.
He said scramblers by definition are not vehicles that should be used on public roads and that is why the new regulations would being drafted.
“The definition of a scrambler will be laid out in the regulation when we bring it in and how it will be dealt with. I think it’s important that we understand that what we’re trying to do is to make communities safer here,” he said.
Canney said existing legislation was being enforced, adding that over 400 scramblers have been confiscated by gardaí in the last two years.
Asked why further legislation was needed in that case, he said: “Because we need to make sure that the scramblers are off our public roads because they are a danger to people on the roads.”
When pressed on whether the new regulations were performative, Canney said: “Absolutely not.
“I would say that through the legislation passed in 2023 before my time, part of that legislation was to deal with the scramblers and to make sure that they were taken off the roads. It wasn’t brought in. It is being brought in now.”
When Savage suggested that the problem is existing laws are not being enforced, Canney said the enforcement is happening, “but we do need to strengthen the law to make sure that no scrambler is in our public roads or public car parks”.
Asked what will be in the regulations that will allow gardaí to act, he said that people will know they can’t use scramblers on public roads and parents will know that their children “shouldn’t be using these on the road”.
It is important that everybody understands that a scrambler was never designed to be used on a public road, so we’re going to take them off the public roads.
Garda sources have told The Journal that their ability to take scramblers off drivers is hampered by not being allowed to pursue them, and not having adequate vehicles to pursue them across green areas.
Canney acknowledged the risk that if a garda pursues someone on a scrambler, it could lead to someone being injured.
“It is important to say that we have powers to actually confiscate the scrambler at the place where it has been stored, because [gardaí] just follow it to wherever it is and seize it at that point.”
When asked how gardaí in a car can pursue people using scramblers that travel over footpaths, green spaces or public parks at speed, the Minister of State said:
“If this is observed, and if they deem it dangerous to chase the person across that public park to create more danger, they will detect and use their skills to track that scrambler back to wherever it parks, and then they will confiscate it. That’s as simple as it is.”
Canney also said the other aspect of the new regulations will focus on what happens after the scramblers have been confiscated, saying the current legislation is “lax” in this area.
“People can apply to the courts to get them back after an incident and when a court case is finished, they can apply and pay a fine and get them back.” He did not have figures for how many seized scramblers have been returned to people.
“My belief is that we need to make sure that we have finality with this, so that scramblers are taken off our roads. We need to do it as a matter of urgency.”
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