Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

The Minister of State will be aware of recent reports of e-scooters being sold openly in Irish shops which do not meet those safety requirements and are, therefore, illegal to use on Irish roads. My fear is we are becoming an outlier in western Europe. In France and Germany, e-scooters and, therefore, the users need to be insured. In Italy, e-scooters need to have a licence plate and be insured and registered. There is a requirement on users to practice safe use of e-scooters.

One interesting aspect of the German model is e-scooters have to come with an operating permit and, to get the permit, the e-scooter must comply with requirements including having a maximum speed of 20 km/h. That enables its sale on the German market.

The time has come to not just look at general regulations. These are different vehicles from push bikes and separate from the use of infrastructure by pedestrians. They are mechanically propelled and that has to be taken into account in the regulations. There is a need for an operator permit model.

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