Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming into the House to respond to this issue, which I, together with other Members, have raised in recent years without a satisfactory response or indeed much response at all. The use of scramblers, quad bikes and motorbikes by young people has become the most common issue being raised in my constituency at community meetings. In safety forums in the Finglas and Ballymun areas, it is consistently the single biggest issue being raised by residents, the local authority and members of the Garda. People are losing patience with the Government's delay in responding to the matter by way of legislation and other measures.

There is now widespread use of quad bikes and scramblers by young people in my constituency and in many others, particularly in urban areas. It involves teenagers, in the main, driving these vehicles without tax, insurance or licence. It is not just a case of those over 16 years, who are obliged to abide by road traffic legislation, but we increasingly see younger children. In parts of the Dublin area at least, and probably in other urban areas, it is not unusual to see children as young as seven or eight years, and sometimes there are two or three of them on a single vehicle, racing around housing estates and on public open space, including parks, posing a huge danger to themselves, pedestrians and other road users. It is very closely associated with a high level of anti-social activity.

This has been brought to the attention of the current Minister, Deputy Flanagan, and his predecessors on several occasions. The problem is multifaceted. It started some years ago with the use of these vehicles in parks and the fact that road traffic legislation did not apply. We called for amendments there but nothing has happened.

Around Christmas 2016, I called for the Road Safety Authority and the Garda to announce an initiative to discourage parents from buying these vehicles for their children because it has become commonplace. They are not being stolen, they are bought by parents for children to race around the local community. It is a common practice that children as young as seven or eight years look for, and get, these vehicles as presents at Christmas or for confirmation or even first communion. That is because the situation has been allowed to get completely out of control. It was not stemmed originally when it was a minor problem only starting to emerge. Because of a lack of response then, the problem has now exploded and has reached a point where it is extremely widespread.

As an example, the local Garda sergeant in the Finglas area recently informed residents that he had successfully persuaded Tesco, which runs the local petrol station, to stop supplying petrol to these youngsters. Tesco deserves praise for agreeing to do so but this must be replicated by other outlets. That is the level of activity in which the Garda and the local council are involved in an effort to tackle this problem in the absence of an adequate response from the Government. Will the Minister please tell us that he will take this issue seriously. Can we expect to see some action?

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