John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Following on from Deputy Murnane O'Connor's comments, I met taxi drivers and the Minister of State last week regarding those issues and following up on them. Many pressing transport issues are facing Dublin, as the Minster will appreciate, but I will focus on a matter I raised during the climate action debate last week. It concerns e-scooters. There are far more important issues, but this is my e-scooter week and I have decided this is an opportunity to drive this issue home. The Minister was very enthusiastic during that debate, when he said that we should get legislation for e-scooters over the line and let us do that.

That attitude is not reflected in the responses to parliamentary questions, so we need to go back and look at that. I did go away thinking at the time that I was the smaller element in the "let us do that" equation, compared to the Minister. He has the report his predecessor had. I cannot do anything with it. I have done much work with the various providers, and I have seen many developments and much evolution. We now have onboard helmets, some e-scooters now come with indicators and number plates and they are much more robust and durable. Many come with scooter stands, and also have geolocation technology, which means they do not become litter on the street. They are also speed governed and the technology, as the Minister knows, is so sophisticated that the scooters can now be speed governed to the point where it is possible to ride them at 15 mph or so along St. Stephen's Green, but coming to a pedestrianised area such as Grafton Street will cause the remotely governed speed to immediately drop off and a rider would have to dismount.

In the context of public transport now being only for essential purposes, there is a case for making e-scooters available in Dublin as they provide a great deal of mobility. The UK, however, has taken the lead. Some of the responses to parliamentary questions from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport state that it is not the right time and it is very challenging to do things during the Covid-19 crisis. The UK, however, legislated for a trial period of one year, in several cities, these e-scooters are being rolled out and a significant appetite has been demonstrated in those British cities for this type of transport. I want to do that here and so does the Minister. Can he give us a timeline that will let us get this done?

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