Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin and Deputy Paul Donnelly for bringing forward this motion. I know he is not new to this issue. I shared a seat on Fingal County Council with Deputy Donnelly for nearly six years before coming to this House. He also raised this issue, as I did, on the floor of that chamber. When I was growing up, Santa Claus would have brought bikes and skateboards on Christmas morning, and they were the sounds and noises one would have heard.

Deputy Shortall, who will speak after me, is in the constituency I grew up in and I am sure she could attest to that. I am sure it is also the same in the constituency I now represent, from Swords to Balbriggan. That is not the case now and we know that many of us who live in these areas and in these constituencies will wake up on Christmas morning to the close or distant sounds of these scramblers or quad bikes causing absolute havoc and tearing around in our public parks, on our open spaces, and in our residential roads.

There is no reason to have a quad bike or scrambler other than for reasons of work, or for an organised quad bike race taking place in an organised fashion on private grounds. There is absolutely no other reason for anybody to have one unless it is in those circumstances. We need to take them away.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin spoke very eloquently and passionately about the desire or need behind having these bikes, and he needs to be listened to. We need to have that conversation. We also need to take them away right now. The motion speaks very well to that. We would not tolerate an individual with a gun licence going into an open park or an open space and discharging it at a flock of birds. It is the same principle with a quad bike or a scrambler. The bikes have the capacity to cause as much damage and it is like giving a loaded gun to somebody who is untrained. They are then going into our public parks and open spaces to use them. Communities are not divided on this. It is not a contentious issue and 99.9% of people want to see these bikes totally removed from their communities.

Let us be straight that this disproportionately affects working-class communities. Again it is working-class communities that suffer from the actions of a reckless minority. Any powers that could be given should be given to the Garda. I know its members have huge difficulties in that they cannot go into a public park in a squad car and chase after them. We know this. The motion does not speak to that. It speaks to the reality that we face with quad bikes and scramblers. Working-class communities need to be protected from a number of things, I know because I grew up in one, and this is one of those things. What is most frustrating is that we can see the quad bikes, we can see who is on them, and we know who owns them and the addresses where they live. We need to go and get them.

There have been great pilot schemes such as the scheme in Finglas, of which I am very proud, where 40 quad bikes were taken off the road. This was fantastic. Deputy Ó Snodaigh also mentioned another project in Cherry Orchard with Superintendent Tony Twomey, formerly the superintendent with Balbriggan Garda in north County Dublin, who is a fantastic superintendent doing great work. I am delighted to hear that this project is happening but we need to see more of it.

As I said earlier, people are united on this issue throughout the State, and especially in working-class communities. We need to take the danger out of our open spaces and we need to take it out of our parks. We need to ensure that, as much as we can, on Christmas morning we hear the sound of proper, normal gifts of bikes, skateboards and safe gifts. Santa Claus does not want to bring scramblers and quad bikes to children, so stop asking for them, and stop facilitating them being bought. It is absolutely intolerable and it must stop. I commend the motion and I ask the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on behalf of the Government, to take back its reactive amendment. I think we are actually all on the same page on this.

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