Urban Development Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central Deputy Whitmore has now left the Chamber. I understand she probably has another committee to go to. I take her point on antisocial behaviour on buses, particularly Dublin Bus. That is a serious issue. We do not want situations where people are afraid to go on a bus, or are discouraged from doing so, because of antisocial behaviour. I will talk to the Minister for Transport in respect of where we are in terms of security on our buses and the proposals for that. Deputy Tóibín raised Lonely Planet and O'Connell Street. I think I have dealt with that. I also mentioned the Moore Street situation. We do not talk about any potential purchases and so on in advance, even if we were considering it, because these are commercially sensitive issues. TII took a big decision in terms of land required for the metro but additional land that will facilitate the construction of the metro and that will ultimately be part of a wider refurbishment and rejuvenation of O'Connell Street. I take Deputy Shane Moynihan's point about e-scooters. The Deputy stated that he has an open mind regarding between regulation and an outright ban. There is a real issue in respect of how the use of these scooters has evolved and how there was no regulatory framework in place when they arrived some years ago. People did not anticipate the uses that they are now being put to by drug gangs and for other criminal activity. The latter is proving very problematic for An Garda Síochána, as the Garda Commissioner has told the Deputy. There will be legislation to support An Garda Síochána. I do not like gardaí being investigated on the basis of their pursuing someone in the line of duty. There can be issues arising from that, but they should not suffer in their civilian lives subsequently. Do not get me wrong, there are issues around pursuit. It is not the only answer, particularly as it creates its own dangers down the line. Pursuit can lead to death and injury, so we have to be careful of the health and safety of gardaí as well as that of the general public when pursuit operations happen. I will convene a meeting with relevant Ministers on this next week in order to focus on the issue the Deputy has raised. I fully support what Deputy Ó Murchú said about inter-agency action. Such action is absolutely essential. I also met Siobhán and Martin Lynch. I was appalled by what they have had to endure online. They already suffered the most traumatic of shocks in their lives when they lost their daughter, but then to have very callous people post online about them in the way they have done is beyond human comprehension. What is wrong with people? What is wrong with our society that individuals can do that to a family that has suffered and endured so much? This is something we need to reflect on as a society more generally. --- 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/2026-07-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-15