Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-27
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Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central

For Grace Lynch, last Sunday began like any other. Spending time with her family, having breakfast, talking about her plans for the day, texting friends and having the craic with her sisters and baby brother. Later, on Sunday afternoon, Grace went to meet her boyfriend. She never came home. As she crossed the Ratoath Road a short distance from her home, Grace was mowed down by a scrambler bike. Hit at full speed and with full force, her body was thrown across the road. She was rushed to Connolly Hospital where doctors desperately treated her catastrophic injuries, but it was not enough. Grace Lynch died that evening. She was 16. A young woman with her whole life ahead of her. The apple of her father's eye and her mother's pride and joy, she was killed on the road in her community as she went about her everyday 16-year-old life. What happened is every parent's, every family's and every young person's worst nightmare. Now, instead of preparing her for school, her heartbroken parents prepare to bury their lovely daughter.
Grace Lynch was failed catastrophically. Scrambler bikes have been the scourge of working-class communities in Dublin and beyond for years. Neighbourhoods being terrorised by antisocial behaviour involving these bikes is nothing new, with gangs driving scramblers dangerously, harassing and intimidating people and delivering drugs. There have been countless accidents and there is a constant sense of menace, but the Government failed to listen to communities and take them seriously. It was, in reality, only a matter of time before somebody was killed. Now that somebody has a name. Her name is Grace Lynch.
For more than a decade, we pushed the Government to crack down and introduce stronger laws to get these scramblers off our streets. When the Government would not act, we did. In 2021, we brought forward legislation to take this on, but the Government amended and blocked it and dragged its heels. In 2023, it brought forward legislation but it did not go far enough. As we meet here today, this legislation has not been enacted fully. Only today, when a child is dead, the Government is talking about moving quickly, tightening things up and taking action.
The absence of any Government urgency in tackling the menace of scramblers is frightening. This has to change fast.
Éilíonn bás Grace Lynch gníomh ón Rialtas chun dul i ngleic leis na rothair streachailte. Tá ár bpobail cráite acu. Grace's mother, Siobhán, spoke at a vigil in Finglas last night. She said watching Grace take her last breath was the worst pain imaginable. She vowed to fight to get these scramblers off our streets, but this is not a fight she should have to take on. It is the Government’s job to act now to ensure that another life is not lost. The Taoiseach owes it to Grace’s heartbroken parents to set out what the Government will do now to get scramblers off our roads and streets and out of our communities, where they have wreaked havoc for years.
I spoke with Grace’s mam, Siobhán, last night. She told me that Grace was a happy girl and a kind girl. She loved her family. She loved her friends. She loved the colour red. She loved life, and she should still be here. Her death cannot be in vain, because Grace Lynch matters. What happened to her matters. What happens next really matters. The Government must act.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:01+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-27