Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is good to hear. We all saw that "Prime Time" special a few weeks ago on e-scooters. It was screened a few weeks before Christmas. A lot of these e-scooters have a restricter on them that inhibits the speed one can travel at. As the witnesses may recall, it was shown on "Prime Time" that a few clips of wire can be used to reset that restricter and enable those scooters to do much higher speeds. We need future-proofing legislation that would cater not only for the first iteration of e-scooters but also for the faster ones that will inevitably come subsequently.

I will put the next few questions to Mr. Fulham and Ms Tinsley. The first of them relates to a matter that was touched on by a colleague a few months ago. There is a general specification given to local authorities throughout the country as to the width of footpaths and the widths and lengths of parking spaces. There is one lot of specification and, normally speaking, it works well. When you see a new-build project, we would typically see a 1.8 m wide footpath and it generally allows someone in a wheelchair, pushing a buggy or in a mobility scooter to pass by a pedestrian safely. I have sometimes found that 1.8 m fine in a new-build scenario but it is sometimes prohibitive. In towns such as Ennis, the county town in Clare, the streets are medieval. In many towns around the country, such as Killaloe, County Clare, we have local authorities telling us that the specification is 1.8 m but they cannot fit that in in their area and, therefore, they cannot have a footpath. This happens repeatedly. Normally, the NCBI would tell us that it has to be 1.8 m for safety and for safe passing, but does the NCBI believe that there should be some form of derogation or whatever for local authorities? I would hold the view it is better to have some form of footpath, narrow and all as it might be, in these towns than none. That was the first point.

The second point I wish to make relates to the width of parking spaces in Ireland. I know well a wheelchair user who would say that when you can get to a wheelchair space - that is a problem in itself - there seems to be generally enough separation distance to the left and right of the car to get out of the car, into the wheelchair and move off. If you move elsewhere in the car park, the specification in Ireland is generally that spaces should be 2.5 m wide. That is at significant variance with the United States where the average car parking space is 2.7 m. One will often see someone trying to put a child into a car seat in a car and struggling in a big way not to drop the child and contort himself or herself around car doors to get in. I was wondering if the witnesses have any ideas on that.

Lastly, I cycled again to the Dáil this morning. The Luas rail system is fantastic in Dublin but I have seen many people using e-scooters and, indeed, bicyclists, like myself this morning, encountering difficulties. If you try to cross over those Luas rails and you get the alignment of your wheels wrong, you are jammed on that rail. It will throw you off. It will smash you off the road. We have had scooters, e-scooters and bicycles interfacing with the Luas for many years but there is no signage to warn anybody that your wheel is just wide enough to get stuck in a Luas rail and it will throw you off. The committee should at least write to Dublin City Council that something be done to the Luas rail to provide warning signage along the city.