Ms Victoria Springthorpe:

Senator Horkan asked about addressing the concerns of disability groups, as a company we have engaged in many of these groups in Ireland, including the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, the Irish Wheelchair Association and Age Action Ireland. As Mr. O'Brien indicates, the main priorities are noise and speed when the vehicles are used on footpaths. We would welcome seeing things such as bells being mandatory according to legislation, as they are in the UK. They are a way to alert other road users. There is an active group in the industry to look at a noise solution currently and it is being researched as a cross-industry effort. As with electric cars, it is considering what the minimum requirements should be.

With regard to speed, there is an industry standard of geofencing, which can prohibit the use of these vehicles in certain areas, as Mr. O'Brien has indicated. As a company, our vehicles have accuracy of between 10 cm and 20 cm, and we ensure the technology is top of the class to prevent issues. On the use of vehicles on footpaths, we strongly agree with what has been set out in terms of not using the vehicles on footpaths. We really think those are a protected space for different community groups. As an industry we are also constantly looking at technological ways to prevent problems in that regard. We are testing in America and Madrid in Europe a prevention technology that would not allow a scooter to use a footpath.

On the question of legislation and what is or is not missing, the rest of the team set out restrictions on 250 W systems prohibits the most modern vehicles in the market. We are happy with the 55 kg element, as it is appropriate weight usage, and the speed of approximately 20 km/h or 25 km/h is appropriate. Mr. Padden, who worked with the UK Department of Transport, might speak more to this.