Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to support this legislation and I commend my constituency colleague, Deputy Ellis, on his work in drafting and tabling it. The Minister of State's response is disappointing, however. He seems to be in denial of the problem and in his speech he went on various tangents without making a serious attempt to address the nub of the problem, namely, the increased use of vehicles such as mini-bikes, dirt bikes, scramblers and quad bikes in housing estates. Many of us, particularly in the Dublin area, are conscious of the concerns this problem has caused among local residents. There are serious dangers for the users of the vehicles, who can be as young as seven years, other children playing nearby, residents out walking and elderly people who fear being knocked down. The use of these vehicles is also associated with other anti-social behaviour. These vehicles are noisy and they create a hostile atmosphere wherever they are used. I am not sure that the Minister of State appreciates the extent of the problems they cause.

Parents often mean well in buying these vehicles for their children as Christmas or birthday presents but they do not realise the responsibility that accompanies them.

A person is required to have tax and insurance to operate a mechanically propelled vehicle, but that point is not widely understood. There is a job of work to be done by the Garda in addressing that and making it clear to those operating a mechanically-propelled vehicle what their responsibilities are in that respect.

These are issues that crop up in the constituency I share with Deputy Ellis and in many other constituencies, particularly in the Dublin area, where there are large housing estates. There has been no serious attempt by the authorities to address this problem, which tends to be hidden away in estates and for that reason causes much aggravation to local residents. There has not been any adequate official response to it. The problem exists, certainly within housing estates, but it is particularly acute when young people use those vehicles in what are regarded as public places other than public roads. I refer in particular to playing fields and public parks. This is something that has been identified over some time by the Garda. For example, local authority parks do not come under the ambit of the Road Traffic Acts because the roadways or pathways in parks do not constitute public roads. This was confirmed to me in a reply to a parliamentary question by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, earlier in the year. I raised this issue and asked him to confirm that the Road Traffic Acts did not apply to public parks. The Minister confirmed this in his reply, stating that if the parks are places to which the public do not have access with vehicles, it is a matter for the management body concerned to provide for and enforce relevant governing legislation or by-laws, including on the use of quad bikes, as the case may be, to ensure that all persons comply with the permitted use of the park. It has been confirmed that the Garda cannot enforce the Road Traffic Acts within public parks, and that is the nub of the problem. Deputy Ellis, in this legislation, is seeking to provide for powers in order to be able to enforce that legislation in public parks.

Deputy Ellis stated quite clearly that he is dealing with one aspect of the issue here. He is open to amendments in any part of the Bill where they are required. He is taking an open approach in a genuine attempt to address this issue. Deputy Ellis has drafted this legislation and I believe the response of the Government, as outlined by the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, is wholly inadequate. The Minister of State is ignoring the existence of a problem and putting his head in the stand. I do not know whether it is through lack of awareness of the problem, but there is a genuine attempt being made here to address the problem.

Undoubtedly, there is a serious issue with the use of various motor-propelled vehicles by young people in parks. Others have spoken about this. We regularly hear complaints from sports clubs that on a Saturday or Sunday morning when they go to play a match the pitch has been all dug up the previous night due to the use of scrambler bikes or mini-bikes. It costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time to reinstate a pitch that has been destroyed in such a manner to a point at which it is playable.

The other point is that public parks are where parents take their children to ride tricycles or go to a playground and where the elderly go for walks, and they are prevented from doing that because of the use of these kind of vehicles.

The Garda's hands are tied in tackling this problem. If the Minister of State speaks to a garda working in any of the constituencies in the Dublin area, the garda will explain the nature of the problem here. Their hands are tied because they cannot enforce the Road Traffic Acts in a public park. This is a genuine issue.

I would appeal to the Minister of State, who has been given a script to read, to engage with those on this side of the House and accept that we raise this issue genuinely because it is a serious problem. It means that what should be the terrific local amenities of public parks, in which local authorities are investing a great deal, are being rendered unusable in many cases because of the practice of young people using these vehicles which cause such a danger to other park users and to themselves.

There is a need for the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to focus on this issue. It should stop talking about youth diversion programmes and such matters. That is irrelevant to this problem. There is a real practical problem in relation to the use of these vehicles in public parks and we need a practical solution. Deputy Ellis has proposed a solution that goes a long way towards dealing with the problem, and I would appeal to the Minister of State to keep an open mind on this and recognise at least that the problem exists and that something practical has to be done to enable it to be tackled by the Garda in conjunction with the local authorities. As for stating that it is a matter for the local authorities to deal with, the Minister of State knows perfectly well that there are not staff from local authorities in parks at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock at night. Gardaí recognise that there is a problem but their hands are tied because of the absence of appropriate legislation.

I would ask the Minister of State to step back to consider the points being made here today, to recognise that this is a real problem in local communities, to accept the bona fides of Deputy Ellis in attempting to address this problem and to at least not oppose this legislation. He should say that the Government accepts the legislation, recognises there is a problem and will do its utmost to deal with it. I strongly appeal to the Minister of State to take that approach.

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