Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I wish to raise the issue of safety on our roads and, indeed, footpaths in relation to e-scooters and e-bikes. Last week, while coaching our under-14 hurlers in Leixlip, I noticed that there was an ambulance and a police car at an incident on the road behind us. I went up to investigate. I saw a nine-year-old boy being carried away in an ambulance. He had been cycling his bike and minding his own business, along with other people, on the footpath at 7 p.m. in Leixlip. An e-scooter had come along and, obviously, hit him. There was impact there. For me, it highlighted the fear I hear from a lot of people, including elderly people out walking the roads, about e-scooters and e-bikes on the footpaths and where they are mixed or merging. It is not even footpaths; there might be a split cycle lane on the path, so they are sharing similar spaces.

There was legislation last year. Can we look at the penalties around this? There are €50 on-the-spot fines. Are they sufficient? What extra help can we give the Garda as regards enforcement of these issues on our streets? Families are no longer safe having their children out sharing the space on the paths, and our elderly no longer feel safe walking the same roads and sharing the same paths.

See this speech in context