Road Safety
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-09
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James Geoghegan (FG), Dublin Bay South

There is the glaring reality that we in these Houses and the Government have to be honest about - a law was passed in 2024 to regulate e-scooters. Some countries have no regulation of e-scooters but what has actually happened since we made e-scooters legal to purchase in Ireland is that more children have life-long head injuries and are showing up in Temple Street. That is the regulatory regime we in these Houses passed. This is despite every effort by the Garda and others to encourage parents not to purchase e-scooters for their kids - they should not have them. I see in my own constituency gardaí seizing e-scooters right, left and centre. Parents get very upset when they are seized and the gardaí get it in the neck from them. There is very little from an operational point of view that anybody can do. We have to seriously consider the growing number of kids presenting in Temple Street and examine what is taking place in other jurisdictions. It is an issue being discussed among neurosurgeons across the world. In Queensland they have to wear helmets but it does not make much of a difference in terms of the children presenting. It is the e-scooters, the road surface and the kids using the e-scooters on the road surface.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-09