Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he is “leaning towards” a total ban on e-scooters.
The Dáil discussion follows a rise in incidents resulting in deaths and serious injuries, with Martin insisting the Government would get to grips with the issue as they had in the past with joyriding offences.
Scramblers have been banned on public roads since April, but e-scooters are legal for over 16s at a maximum speed of 20km/h.
Martin was responding as Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald highlighted a recent incident involving a scrambler at the Five Lamps in Dublin city in which Jayden Deans (14) was hit as he crossed the road and was “left with a broken, mangled leg and incredible trauma”.
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The Dublin Central TD said his mother, Sandra Deans, is “very, very distraught. And she is also very, very angry”. McDonald accused the Taoiseach of failing to act on his promise to enforce road use following the death of 16-year-old Grace Lynch who was hit by a scrambler in January in Finglas, north Dublin.
Grace Lynch’s parents, Siobhán and Martin Lynch, observed proceedings from the public gallery ahead of their attendance at the Oireachtas Justice Committee.
McDonald said the Taoiseach promised “everything would be done” and told Grace’s parents “we were not going to tolerate this situation any longer”.
Months on from the enactment of Grace’s Law, which bans scramblers in public places, “we actually see the plague of all of this getting worse, not better”, she said.
McDonald said lives have been lost in Carlow and Galway and children are on life support machines in Temple Street Hospital.
Questioning what the Government is going to do, she asked: “How is it possible that it is so easy for anybody to walk into a toy store and to walk out with an e-scooter?”
People “all across the country are sick to the back teeth of gangs on high-speed e-scooters and scramblers, literally bringing havoc and real danger to our neighbourhoods”, she said.
“They are also involved in open intimidation and create a real sense of menace and a sense of fear in our neighbourhoods.”
The Taoiseach said gardaí were actively pursuing illegal use and “about 2,000 e-scooters have been seized since 2024, and about 418 scramblers” in the same period.
But Social Democrats TD Daniel Ennis said a gang on scramblers took over Dublin city centre on Saturday night “for hours”, moving from street to street, and one nearly crashed into him. He said when he went to Store Street Garda station a garda told him they “hadn’t got the resources – on a Saturday night” in the “capital of our country”.
The Taoiseach said: “I don’t think it’s a good enough response from a member of An Garda Síochána. Additional gardaí have been recruited and resources are being allocated."
He acknowledged cases had been taken against gardaí over pursuing criminals, but said the Ministers for Justice and Transport were working on legislation to protect gardaí while in pursuit of a person.
However, he said, “judgment has to be applied in given situations because pursuits are dangerous in themselves and could be potentially dangerous to other bystanders”.
There had been similar issues at different times with joyriders and “ultimately we got control of that through various mechanisms working together”.
The Minister of State for Transport Seán Canney would be back to the House to talk about “reasonable regulations” or a “total ban, which I must say I’m leaning towards myself”.
