Dáil debates

Tuesday, 17 November 2020

Scrambler Motorbikes and Quad Bikes: Motion [Private Members]

 

7:20 pm

Photo of Maurice QuinlivanMaurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues for bringing forward this motion. My colleagues, Deputies Ellis and Munster, brought a similar motion forward during the previous Dáil as well.

This has been an ongoing issue in my constituency for years. I have spoken on this issue on a number of occasions, the last of which was on a Fianna Fáil Bill. At the time, the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport had no interest in solving the issue. I raised the concern I had that the reason he had no interest, and Deputy Ó Broin made the same point, is that this is an issue that mostly affects working-class communities.

Unfortunately, with the Covid-19 crisis we have seen that people are at home and working from home with scramblers outside the door. I know of people who have moved homes because the noise from scramblers is preventing them from doing their work. People who work in sales, the Revenue Commissioners and different offices in Limerick who are working from their homes cannot work properly because of the noise scramblers cause.

We need to have proper legislation on this because local gardaí will tell us they are instructed by their senior officers not to chase young fellows on bikes. The Minister referenced that herself and she can understand why that is the case because of the danger such action would pose to themselves and to people in those communities.

As I said, it is an ongoing issue in my constituency. The Minister referenced Moyross and I grew up in the estate next door. In my local area, we were all shocked in recent times to see a Garda video where three gardaí were pinned against the wall by lads who had quad bikes. Unfortunately, the gardaí did not have the power to take away the quad bike and they had to leave. It was a situation in which the two fingers were shown to the Garda and it caused huge anger in the community. The same day, when those scramblers were being driven around morning, noon and night in that estate, there were two funerals. In the context of Covid-19, people could not go into the house for those funerals so they were standing outside of the gates and they had to get out of the way of those scramblers while they were flying around. We need to have some sort of legislation in place to make sure that people are able to live in their communities safely.

I welcome the moves to look at the positives. It is good to give lads with scramblers a different outlet. There is one such project in Moyross that the Minister mentioned and we need to look at more of that. I know family members who were involved in bikes and scramblers and so on and they have looked after them properly. However, it is important that we take action against the people who have wrecked our local communities, football pitches, grass, and green areas. We need to legislate for this and it is to be hoped the Minister will do that.

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