Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party supported the Sinn Féin Bill on this matter at the end of last year and we will support this Bill. Somebody needs to address this issue. It is welcome yet again to have a debate in the House aimed at tackling this illegal and dangerous use of quad bikes and all-terrain vehicles. We need legislation to address the issue and we all need to keep the pressure on. There is a momentum in this House to tackle this issue. Elements of this Bill are very welcome.

What this Bill lacks, which we can perhaps look at on later Stages, is an answer to one of the existing problems. Gardaí feel they cannot enforce the law that is already there. In regard to seizing quads and scramblers, the Minister for Justice and Equality made two points in reply to a parliamentary question on 12 July 2017. He noted:

...the use of mechanically propelled vehicles, MPVs, including quad bikes and scramblers, in a public place is subject to the relevant requirements of road traffic legislation... [The vehicles] must comply with the Road Traffic Acts, including in terms of motor tax, insurance and possession of a valid driver licence or learner permit. Under the Acts, any member of An Garda Síochána is allowed to stop an MPV in a public place and demand production of a driver licence. In addition, gardaí may inspect the vehicle for compliance with vehicle standards legislation, which makes it an offence to drive without reasonable consideration, in a careless manner or dangerously. The Garda authorities also have powers of seizure, detention, storage and disposal of vehicles under the road traffic code.

The Minister went on to say:

Despite the road traffic and other relevant legislation available in this area, the Garda authorities have indicated that the use of quad bikes and scramblers by minors and youths in public parks has proven difficult to deal with from an enforcement perspective. Garda members are instructed not to pursue youths on quad bikes, scramblers and so on owing to the inherent safety risk in pursuing these vehicles. If such pursuits were to take place, there would be a high risk of them ending in collisions at speed, resulting in serious injury or death. As a result, bringing these vehicles to a stop is challenging.

This seems to indicate a policing issue about the practicality of stopping young offenders on dangerous vehicles rather than an issue around the legal authority to do so. On receiving our own legal advice the Labour Party has some sympathy for that position. We recognise the difficulties. This needs to be addressed and we all need to work together to bring about some kind of legislation to try to work this out.

The problem surrounding the misuse of quad bikes and scramblers has become more and more prevalent in the last five years. In the last three years more than 180 people have been injured in accidents involving off-road vehicles. I mentioned some particularly tragic cases in a previous debate on this topic. I will not go through them again. The Minister referred to one of them and Deputy Ó Snodaigh referred to another. The common problem behind these preventable accidents is the fact that some owners of quad bikes or scrambler motorcycles believe they can get away with using their vehicles wherever and whenever they choose. While the Road Traffic Act 1961 restricts the use of these off-road vehicles in public places, it has always been interpreted as applying only to public roads and not parks etc., as other Deputies have mentioned. However, as the public knows some owners unlawfully use their off-road vehicles in public places such as parks, greens, housing estates and other public and private properties.

When they do that, they endanger pedestrians who frequent public places with erratic and rash driving of their vehicles. There have been many reports of those vehicles being unlawfully used in anti-social behaviour in my constituency in the Ward River Valley in Swords and in areas throughout Fingal, such as Balbriggan beach, Donabate and Portmarnock.

The Bill does not ban the vehicles completely because there is an acknowledgement that many owners drive their vehicles responsibly and safely in designated areas such as on motocross tracks or in designated off-road areas. Instead, it makes sure that those individuals who use such vehicles for anti-social purposes to carelessly drive through parks or green areas, to speed through housing estates doing wheelies and revving their engines to irritate the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and to terrorise innocent people just for fun, will not get away with such behaviour. We must address the issue collectively. If individuals cannot drive responsibly, they not only put other individuals in danger but they also put themselves in danger.

A number of accidents, some fatal, have been caused by two individuals on scrambler motorcycles colliding or driving into parked cars. By restricting where such vehicles can lawfully drive, we would hold them accountable to safe driving practices, not just for the safety of the public but also for their own safety, as we need to protect them as well. The sad fact is that many owners of such vehicles who engage in anti-social behaviour are young and inexperienced drivers who seek the thrill of driving recklessly and think it is above the odds that they will be involved in an accident. Therefore, we must go above and beyond to make sure that while they may not see the imminent danger in which they put others and themselves, the Oireachtas must plan in advance to protect them from themselves. It is important that the national Government addresses the issue. Some local councils have brought in by-laws to try to curb the havoc such vehicles create but the Garda has difficulty enforcing the laws especially in many of the areas that were not, but will now be, covered by the amended legislation.

There is a dire need for legislation such as the Bill before the House that addresses the unlawful use of quad bikes and scrambler motorbikes. The Minister set out the problems with the previous Bill and he has problems with this Bill. We must join together to find a Bill that will work. The Bill is a step in the right direction. We have lost too many people in the reckless usage of such vehicles. I have sympathy with what Deputy Quinlivan from Limerick said about it being a working class problem. I agree with his observation that if this was a problem in south Dublin there would be more focus on it. Let us make sure we do everything we can to assist the Garda to enforce existing and future laws to break the scourge of quad bikes in public spaces. While the Bill is welcome, the difficulty of enforcement will probably still remain. Finding a solution to that problem will not be easy but we should work together to try to find it.

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