Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Indeed.

It is fair to say there is a bit of scaremongering going on with scooters generally. I do not mean Senator Boyhan as such but many people are saying it. We have had this about cycle lanes before. You would think we were getting the Tour de France arriving into a housing estate when there is talk of a cycle lane being put somewhere. We all need to realise that they are going to be a part of the mix. E-scooters are actually illegal, as the Minister outlined, and yet we have people using them all the time. I do not see people being pulled up for it. I saw two of them on the way in today. I was keeping an eye out for them because I knew I would be talking on this and they are out there. The people using them need to realise that we must make sure they are limited in terms of their speed and this geofencing thing that ensures they can only work in cycle lanes or on roads or they cannot work on footpaths. I am not averse to them in parts of parks, no more than I am averse to bicycles or e-bikes being in parts of parks. Some of our parks are gigantic. Obviously people have to have due care for other road users, particularly pedestrians but it would be harsh to say that a scooter has to be on the road when there is a lovely park they could be going through instead. There is a balance. It is an evolving technology and area and none of us is all that familiar with them. I tried them out in a confined space with Zipp Mobility in University College Dublin when they offered us the opportunity. Senator Buttimer tried them down in the Cork with another operator. I think I am happier on a bike actually. Bikes give me a feeling of being more solid, if you like, and having a better sense of balance but that does not mean I would not occasionally want to use an e-scooter. I was in Brussels back in March and I saw some e-scooters on the ground that were broken and damaged. I would not like that to be the case. Whichever operators we bring in need to be well managed, well supervised and well regulated and that is what their intention would be as well.

The Title of this legislation is the Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2021. It has already been renamed at one stage. We are nearly at the end of 2022. It is possible it will be 2023 before we get it through. Then, as the Minister alluded to, that is only the start of the journey in terms of these licensed operators because there must be by-laws and local authorities and that will take time. When does the Minister think we might see licensed operators? I know that is a matter for the local authorities but does the Minister think it will be in 2024 or 2025? There is a role for them and if they take people out of public transport that sometimes has capacity issues, or people out of cars, that is all a positive. I was at the launch of Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland, ZEVI, which the Minister launched at the Aviva Stadium back in July. Electric vehicles will do an enormous amount, particularly for air quality in cities. Maybe as a cyclist one appreciates it a bit more but I do not think we appreciate just how much pollution and how much heat, particularly in the summer time, come out of cars. EVs will be very beneficial for that but were everybody in a diesel or petrol car to move to an electric car, it would not solve congestion. It would improve air quality and reduce our fossil fuel consumption and dependence on fossil fuels but what of the modal shift? As somebody who did not cycle for 20 years and then started cycling again over ten years ago at this stage, the more people we can get to try a bike and feel that it is okay, the better.

I am going to mention a bugbear of mine. At the moment, leaves are the issue but I refer to the amount of broken glass that is lying around the place. It only takes a very small bit of glass to get a puncture. I get a text from my bike repair people every time and I can see that I have had one per month from December to about May. I lost a tyre about a month ago and again, it was all due to glass and punctures. The more wands we have, the harder it is for the road sweepers, though there are mini sweepers that do it. We need to make sure that the public realm for cycling is suitable for people who are less comfortable cycling, as they start on their cycling journey, possibly after 30 years not doing it. The Minister knows this better than me. You get comfortable with it and you move faster. I could not get to Leinster House in anything like the time I do on a bike, in any other way, whether it is on public transport or in a car. Possibly I could get here more quickly in the middle of the night in a car or with zero traffic and getting all the lights. Cycling in urban built-up areas is absolutely the fastest way and you can get from door to door, as opposed to driveway to car park, which is a good distance from where you are trying to get to.The modal shift is very important. This is important legislation. It relates to BusConnects, uninsured drivers, and the management of the M50. Senator Buttimer and I visited the M50 Dublin tunnel operation in terms of cameras for TII. All of this is positive.

I welcome the Bill, but we should do everything we can to facilitate a modal shift. Getting people out of cars and ideally onto personalised public transport is great, in particular bikes and e-bikes, if they are able for it. I have not got an e-bike yet; I feel it is cheating. I am sure a time will come when e-bikes are what I will use. Every person who is not using a car is improving the situation for those who are still using a car. Motorists, of which I am one, do not appreciate that and they say, "Look at that bike", when, in fact, that bike is reducing the congestion on roads. I thank the Minister for being in the Chamber. I ask that he comes back to us on the timeline for licensed operators in the cities and towns.