Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses. I think the Chair summed it up when he spoke of their lived experience and understanding. What is needed is interaction with the Department particularly when we get closer to what we are proposing. People might have expected that the Bill would include more detail on how these e-scooters were to be used but much of it will be left up to regulation. We need to get into the nitty-gritty of that. I accept the difficulties that the witnesses are outlining. Some of it is about the townscapes and planning and our road infrastructure. Like the reply to the person asking for directions in Kerry, I would not start from here. We just do not have wide enough roads or sufficient space in some places and that creates its own difficulties. I will go through some of the points made by the witnesses and will seek their ideas on some notions I will throw out.

I will also refer to some of the general conversations we have had with regard to people who have been proposing schemes and the like. Everybody accepts we cannot have these dumped everywhere and that there must be rules about some type of parking. If we were having a conversation about accessibility and so forth, I imagine it would be about the fact that people parking on pavements has created huge obstacles for the witnesses and the people in their organisations.

On the question of insurance and licensing, we all accept there has to be an age limit in respect of usage, but it is a fact that one does not need insurance to cycle. The idea with some of these schemes, similar to the Dublinbikes scheme, is that one does not need a licence or a helmet so that makes it relatively easy for people to use it. That is accepting the argument that has been made about geofencing, that there are shared spaces, that pavements might not be the place we want this to happen and that there is peaceful coexistence, for want of a better term. However, I will just deal with insurance and licensing. Again, we can put things in and we can want them, but they might not necessarily be deliverable. I have no skin in the game in this regard.