Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Cara Darmody and congratulate her on her tremendous endeavour. Like Senator Wilson, I would have hoped that someone like her could have done my intermediate certificate examination for me and wish her well. She is a very brave young woman who deserves our huge admiration and praise. I join with Senator Wilson in expressing my congratulations to the Georgian people and their ambassador on the anniversary of their independence day and birthday. It is a pity that we could not acknowledge these events here on the exact date but that is another matter.

The Road Traffic and Roads Bill to legalise e-scooters has been delayed, which is a pity. Senator Horkan and I are members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. We have done a lot of work on pre-legislative scrutiny around the regulations concerning the use of e-scooters. It is regrettable that the Minister for Transport has said that it will be at least 2023 before the long-awaited regulations are introduced. As we know, the capital city of Dublin and cities like Cork have been left behind while every other big city in Europe has introduced e-scooters, and had them legalised and regularised.

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister to come to the House for an urgent debate on the regulation of e-scooters and to discuss the new Road Traffic and Roads Bill so that the legislation can be teased out in here in an informal way. We must also allow local authorities to begin to plan for the shared e-scooter schemes. We have seen the success of these shared schemes for e-scooters in many European cities and we have expressions of interest in this country from a number of users. I hope that we can see what is now called powered personal transporters, which is a wonderful name for e-scooters, being regularised. I hope that the Leader will facilitate a debate on the use of e-scooters prior to the summer recess if we do not have legislation ready. E-scooters are currently being used illegally in Irish cities and cause great angst. An e-scooter is a wonderful way to get around and a sustainable mode of transport. It is important that we have a debate, as a matter of urgency.