Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The next petition is petition No. P00024 /23 on electric scooter safety standards and Requirements in the name of Alexander-Marckus Edwards. This petition relates to the recent press release that states that PPT's, electric scooters, should conform to a weight limit, including battery, and power limit of 500 W and 25 kg, respectively. The petitioner alleges that these limitations will make electric scooters considerably more dangerous. The lack of weight in the deck paired with a low-power motor would turn the front wheel into a fulcrum which in turn will result in people hitting the roadway face first. Furthermore, the loss of safety features such as lights, suspension and wider tyres will occur to maintain a weight requirement of 25 kg. Technical safety features like ballasting circuits, overcharge protection and tracking technology can make scooters more unsafe. The requirement to maintain 500 W or less will make it nearly impossible to get up a hill. The weight requirement will also cause the likes of Bolt, Uber and Free Now to have to use older scooters, which in turn will increase safety risks. The petitioner believes it is in the Government's best interests to open a public debate and consult people from the e-scooter community as to safety, speed, power and weight requirements for electric scooters and to take recommendations based on experience into consideration.

This petition was considered on 14 December 2023 with the following recommendation: the correspondence from the Department of Transport be forwarded to the petitioner for comment within 14 days; invite the petitioner and the Department of Transport on the same day in the new year for a discussion on the petition.

The secretariat received a response from the petitioner via the committee via JCPP-r-1412-2024. The petitioner expressed apologies for taking so long to get back to us and attached a PDF for the committee, appendix D, in response to the Department of Transport's statements. The recommendation is the correspondence from the petitioner be forwarded to the Department of Transport for comment within 14 days and the committee invite the petitioner and the Department of Transport on the same day for a discussion on this petition. Do members have any views? Is that agreed?