Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-07-14 ============================================================ Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central Sandra Deans is living a nightmare. Three weeks ago, her 14-year-old son Jayden was knocked down by a speeding scrambler in a hit-and-run incident. Jayden was on his way to the shops and he was hit as he crossed the road at the Five Lamps in the inner city. When his mother Sandra got the call and hurried to the scene, she arrived not knowing whether her son was alive or dead. Jayden has suffered a very serious injury to his leg. He has been left with a broken mangled leg and incredible trauma. He is now confined to his home and needs constant care while he recovers. Sandra is understandably very distraught but she is also very angry. People in the north inner city of Dublin and beyond, across our suburbs in Finglas and Cabra and all across the country, are sick to the back teeth of gangs on high-speed e-scooters and scramblers literally bringing havoc and real danger to our neighbourhoods. They speed through our communities with absolutely no regard for anybody's safety not to mind the law. These vehicles are being used to deliver drugs. They are also involved in open intimidation and create a real sense of menace and a sense of fear in our neighbourhoods. When Grace Lynch, who was only 16, died when she was hit by a scrambler in January, the Taoiseach said at the time that everything would be done. He said, and I believe he told Grace's parents, that this death was enough, that Grace was enough, and that we were not going to tolerate this situation any longer. Grace's Law was supposed to mark a real turning point for us. We are months on from its enactment and we see the plague of all of this getting worse and not better. Grace's parents, Siobhán and Martin Lynch, are here with us today in the Public Gallery and I welcome them. Later today they will appear at the justice committee. They say and they know that certainly not enough is being done to face down this scourge. They say correctly that unless the law is enforced, then it essentially means nothing. Martin, her dad, has told how his blood boils when he sees scramblers and e-scooters moving at high speed across our city with no consequences for the people on them. Lives have been lost. We know of the loss of lives in Carlow and in Galway. We know there are children on life-support machines in Temple Street hospital and beyond. Real harm and real damage is being done. The question has to be asked today: what is the Government doing about it? How is it possible that it is so easy for anybody to walk into a toy store and walk out with an e-scooter? In many cases, these e-scooters are being bought and they are moving way beyond 25 km/h. They are moving at 60 km/h and 70 km/h. We know that the scrambler bikes, in reality, in many cases, are motorbikes. We know there is not the requirement to have these vehicles registered and to have those using them licensed and to have tax and insurance - all of the standard things that we expect of anybody else using the roads. I want to know what the Taoiseach is going to do. When is this going to change? When will the Garda be resourced? When will gardaí have the training? When will they have the equipment to get on top of this and to make our communities safe? --- 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/2026-07-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-14