Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the publication of this legislation. Along with my colleagues on the transport and communications committee, which I chair, I engaged in pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. We are very much involved in it. E-scooters were not included in the original draft where pre-legislative scrutiny was concerned. We covered the matter as best we could. We ask that, in order to have substantial pre-legislative scrutiny, all aspects of a Bill be made available. The e-scooter aspect is quite substantial and should have been subjected to pre-legislative scrutiny. We scrutinised what was available to us based on submissions made and briefs provided to us by the Department, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton.

I want to refer to several points related to the legislation. We await Committee Stage, on which I expect the committee and Ministers to spend a significant amount of time. We were asked to expedite the pre-legislative scrutiny and we did so last July. It is important that we get this right. We are in a fast-changing world. There is a need for legislation.

The Bill is called the Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2021. It probably should include a reference to e-scooters or some such term in the Title. While the Bill deals with the road traffic aspect, the matter of e-scooters and e-bikes is very new. I would like to see the Bill before the committee as quickly as possible so it can be given time and so we will reach a point where everyone will work together to have something that works.

Let me deal with a couple of aspects. On the road traffic aspect, my colleagues on the transport committee and I visited the Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, control room for the M50 and other locations last Tuesday.

In practice, what is being proposed relates to improving safety and improving certainty in terms of travel time on the M50, particularly around Dublin. However, there is a significant body of work to be done in the respect of communicating to the public how it will work. The way the traffic light system will work is that there will be indications on the big signs that are in place and the speed limits will change in various locations, depending on traffic. The key thing for people to realise is that when the limits change, that is because there is a problem and they need to slow down. They need to realise that TII is trying to get people to their destination more quickly. The limits will change because the traffic control system is indicating there has been a breakdown up ahead or there is congestion in a certain location. That is very important.

I note the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has stated that he is bringing forward legislation on the active travel side for infrastructure. The question is whether that is coming through in this Bill. We have not had sight of it. It is a matter we will have to consider in depth at committee. My concern relates to being able to give such a substantive body of legislation the scrutiny it requires. That is something about which I feel very strongly. We are a Parliament. We are here to scrutinise legislation, working together to make something that functions effectively. It is old-fashioned but, in my experience, if legislation is scrutinised at committee and in the Dáil and Seanad, it is improved through that process. The scrutiny debugs it. It is a trial run. Specific areas of legislation that may not otherwise be picked up are considered when that scrutiny is applied. It serves a common purpose.

I welcome the changes relating to scramblers. There is a serious problem with scramblers in Limerick. Many of them are being driven on private property. It seems to me that under the legislation the Garda will be able to enter onto private property, although not into homes. There have been situations in Limerick where people have been terrorised. In many cases, it is young men or women who are driving the scramblers. I very much welcome the provisions in that regard in the Bill but I am seeking certainty on how it will operate in practice.

I refer to e-scooters. It is very important that we get this right. Deputies have been contacted on the issue by disability groups. Will e-scooters be allowed on footpaths? Will there be designated parking areas for e-scooters and e-bikes, rather than their being parked in a disorderly way? There may be a wider issue in connection with the fact that under EU Regulation No. 540/2014 all manufacturers must equip new electronic and hybrid vehicles with an acoustic vehicle alerting system. I have been in electric cars. They make no sound. That issue is being raised by members of the public. It is very important that all electric bikes and e-scooters should sound almost like a normal car or bike because in many cases they creep up on people who are completely unaware of their approach. It is very dangerous. That is a very simple measure that would deal with an issue that members of the public bring to my attention all the time. We want electric vehicles because they are good for the environment and on a myriad of levels but, in the interests of safety, people must be able to hear them approaching.

To go back to the issue of age limits, I take the point by Deputy Berry regarding the age limit being 16 and how that works. How will it be enforced? If a person of 13 or 14 years of age is driving an e-scooter or an e-bike on a footpath, how will the rules be enforced in the context of their age profile? In life, the great majority of people abide by the law. It is a very small number of people who do not do so but they wreak havoc. They take up infinite State resources. We must ensure the law is enforceable but not so strict as to be draconian for the general population. That is a difficult line to find but it needs to be considered.

I very much welcome the measure relating to the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland, whereby insurers will have to give information within five days. That should catch people who may have stopped their insurance. How quickly will that be up and running? Who will have access to it? This relates to the wider area of insurance. In life, knowledge is king. The insurance companies should be working with all stakeholders, such as the State, the Garda and the Government, to improve safety and bring down premiums and this must work in favour of the consumer as well. It is a very good measure. When will it be up and running? Who will have access to it?

To go back to the issue of powered personal transporters, PPTs, I and many of my colleagues have been told by many of the providers in the area that limiting the battery power to 250 W is insufficient on the grounds of safety. The e-scooter or e-bike might not be able to go up a hill. I am not technically competent to comment on that, but I know that it is coming at us like a steam train and we must ensure it does not get out of control. As such, we should consider the issue of the wattage of e-scooters and e-bikes because the claims of the providers may be correct.

There is a need for this to be a structured operation. Many of the e-scooters and e-bikes will be rentals and I do not think that is covered under legislation. The Minister of State indicated they will be subject to regulations similar to those in place for bicycles. How will that operate in practice? There needs to be designated parking spaces for e-bikes. There is a need to ensure they cannot be driven on footpaths. I refer to the age groups and how the rules in that regard are enforced. Is there a case for restricting the younger age group to a lower wattage? Can we encourage people to use them to travel to school? I reiterate that must be done in a safe way.

People are talking about the rules of the road and whatever. We need to carry out an overall review of the rules for car drivers and bike users in order to consider what we can do to make it safer. What can we do to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians? Where designated cycle lanes are provided, what is the legal situation if a bike does not use that cycle lane but instead uses the road? How do we ensure that car drivers are fully conversant with the rules of the road in respect of cyclists? Many of them probably are not. We want to encourage more people to use bikes and e-scooters. That is good for the environment but it must be done in a safe and coherent way.

In advance of the Bill coming before the Committee on Transport and Communications, I ask that the committee be given good notice of the amendments that will be proposed and that adequate time be set aside to look at this issue. Obviously, it is confined in the context of the membership of the committee, but Deputies who are not members of the committee are very welcome to join the meeting and engage in debate on the specific sections of the Bill and the consideration of amendments. What we want to do is to get legislation that is fit for purpose.

Let us do it in the old fashioned way, namely, by going through the Bill section by section and debating them and by looking at the amendments and debating them. We may not agree with them but aside from the work we do in our constituency, which is hugely important to me, we are elected to be parliamentarians.

I am very excited by this legislation. What we need to do now is to put in the time to scrutinise all aspects of it. We welcome it coming forward on Committee Stage in the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport.

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