Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Ellis and others said, this is an issue that plagues many communities in this city but also the beyond the city. The Dáil record shows there was a debate in 2014 with the then Minister of State, Tom Hayes. He came into the House with a four-page script but I do not think he knew what was in it because one of the towns in his own area of Tipperary, Cahir, was also being plagued by scramblers and quads being driven illegally with the intent to do damage to unused spaces or public spaces. That was addressed by the council by blocking off the specific spaces. We do not have the luxury of doing this in some of the areas that are being plagued in my own constituency because they are public parks. Any time the gates are blocked up or changed to prevent scramblers from going into the parks, the people just break down the fence, causing criminal damage. While they should be arrested for criminal damage, as happens in many communities, the CCTV cameras do not seem to catch that activity.

The amount of damage to football pitches and playing areas for kids is horrendous but we must also consider the number of people who have been injured while carrying out this activity. The Minister mentioned the Armenian man who lost an eye while he was sunbathing when a scrambler landed on top of him, although he was not partaking of the scrambling or the wrecking of public play areas. There are people who have died in my constituency and elsewhere in this city. There was one incident a number of Christmases ago and, the following Christmas, the exact same thing happened. Luckily, the young fellow in that case did not die but he was left with horrific injuries.

Any other vehicle of this size, whether a car or otherwise, would be seized because it would be a danger not only to the person driving but also to the public.

The law will have to catch up sometime. Moreover, the Garda should be fully resourced. A big problem in most of the communities plagued with this problem is not just a lack of enforcement but a lack of gardaí to carry out enforcement. We in Ballyfermot thought we were very lucky to get seven gardaí recently, but six of them were very quickly seconded out of Ballyfermot to somewhere else. That did not help to address any issues.

There is also a need to address some of the young people who are involved in this type of activity. I know that local youth services are directly involved with some of those who in the past could be found scrambling, running amuck and wrecking community spaces. Those young people's behaviour has been addressed, but other young people in the background then seem to pick it up. Anybody who lives in those communities knows full well what it is like to wake up on a Sunday morning and hear no end of scrambling, especially around Christmas time. Something must be done to address the fact that these high-powered vehicles are being sold to parents who then pass them on to young kids. I have seen them myself. Some of these kids are five, six or seven years old. They are barely hanging on. I do not know what kind of lunatic parent puts a child in charge of something like that with no training, no expertise and in many cases no helmet. Accident and emergency departments then end up trying to help a young person whose head is split open over the Christmas period.

I understand that legislation takes a while to get ready and I understand the arguments around the public space. We all need to get on with this. In 2014 I spoke about the Bill introduced by Deputy Ellis. We were raising this issue before that. This is urgent. We must act before somebody else loses a life. When that happens communities will be demanding what we have done apart from sitting here and talking. We need a bit of action.

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