Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Deputy MacSharry, for his work on this Bill and acknowledge the support of Deputy Troy. Also, such work was ably assisted by Deputies Lahart and Curran who have a vested interest in ensuring its passage through the House. As a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport, I support this Bill and hope it will pass Second Stage and proceed to Committee Stage where it can be further debated.

E-scooters are a green energy mode of transport facilitating people who want to get from A to B not at a fast but at a reasonable speed. Amendments will be put forward to the Bill and we will need to discuss how we deal with these vehicles. From a rural point of view, I wish e-scooters could be of benefit to me and others in rural Ireland, but previous speakers said we do not have the infrastructure to accommodate them. My concern is that with all the talk of green energy and different modes of transport, public transport as an option could be left lying idle. One reason it has been left lying idle is that our incumbent Minister does not see fit to be more proactive in providing for public transport in rural Ireland. He boasts of making money available to Local Link and rural link bus services, but more of these services need to be put in place.

We are discussing the use of e-scooters in an orderly manner and having a safe code for their users to protect pedestrians, but from experience of being in Dublin in recent years, I find it hard even to walk down a footpath at the moment because of the multicultural nature of the people in the city.

At one time, there was a gentleman's agreement that we walked down the left-hand side of a footpath. Now, we are zigzagging all the way up the footpath to avoid people coming against us because no one knows whether they should keep left or right. When we go abroad, we drive on the right-hand side of the road whereas in Ireland we drive on the left-hand side. Pedestrians should have the same attitude when they come to this country in regard to the gentleman's agreement about walking down footpaths. It is an issue that should be looked at as well.

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