Ms Léan Kennedy:

Similar to the Irish Wheelchair Association, some companies have contacted us. They have told us that they were open to hearing our concerns, that they wanted to know what changes they could make to make e-scooter use friendlier and safer around people with disabilities and other people using walkways and so on. They stated that they really feel strongly that smart technology will be a big factor in helping to improve safety and more but we have not been convinced of that yet. The companies have offered to show us examples of how the technology has worked in different countries and how well it has been implemented. In our research we have found that an awful lot of countries, especially EU member states, are pushing back because they have had so many issues with legalising e-scooters in terms of personal injury claims and so on.

Our research does not show this technology works. Yes, the companies have been in touch and expressed a desire to do projects. They want to do testing and conduct studies with our service users. We are not convinced that there is a solution beyond what we have asked for in our positional paper. As a starting point, the Bill needs to be amended as we have asked, in terms of the points that we have raised in our paper, to make it in any way workable for people with disabilities but in its current state it is not workable.