Mr. Will O'Brien:

Similar to other speakers, we do in-app and in-person training. Before we launch in a city or town, we typically do a few weeks of training-only events so that access to e-scooters will only be from within the safe confines of a supervised area. We take a place such as a carpark and have a number of members of the Zipp team showing people how to use the e-scooters, and handing out free helmets, high visibility jackets and giving them promotional materials to thank them for coming. In addition, complementing the communications we provide in-app, our social media regularly runs competitions to promote safety messaging.

On the engagement side, this is by far one of the most critical things to get right in Ireland. We need to introduce e-scooters to communities in a way that is acceptable to them, not to just come in overnight and drop a few hundred or 1,000 scooters in a city and leave. It is critical that we talk to residents' groups and members of the visually impaired and disability communities and get them on board, making them a key part of the design of the trial, taking on board their feedback both pre- and post-launch as we iterate through the trials. As I mentioned, in our operations in the UK, we meet monthly with a wide group of stakeholders, including residents' groups and members of the blind community, and work with the local guide dog teams to report on any incidents. Ensuring there is a feedback loop there is critical so that when they report problems to us, we are able to make the amendments. One of the great things about these shared e-scooter programmes is that because there is an operator above the system, if change is sought, it can be introduced.