Tánaiste says he is 'concerned' by lack of registration system for e-scooters

TÁNAISTE SIMON HARRIS has said he believes further regulations around e-scooter use are not only necessary but “inevitable”. 

Speaking today in Dublin, Harris said he is concerned about the lack of registration for e-scooter ownership, and that he is happy to work with the minister for transport to see if there is a need to set up a registration system. 

As things currently stand, a person must be 16 years of age or older to use an e-scooter on Irish roads, but the scooter does not need to be registered, taxed or insured. 

The Tánaiste’s comments come in the wake of two tragic incidents on Irish roads in the past 24 hours involving e-scooters. 

In Carlow town, a teenager in his late teens died yesterday evening after falling from an e-scooter, while in Dublin, two boys in their early teens also fell from an e-scooter in a separate incident last night. One of the boys received serious injuries. 

The Tánaiste noted that paediatricians in Irish hospitals have been highlighting the alarming rise in children with traumatic brain injuries as a result of incidents involving e-scooters. 

“Electric scooters were meant to be a way of helping people get around in an environmentally friendly way, get in and out of work, short journeys, I get that.

“I get there’s an appropriate use of them too, but the level of accidents now on them, the level of trauma being caused, the level of ICU occupancy is a genuine concern for government, and we not only don’t rule out further regulation, I think it’s almost inevitable there would be a need for further measures,” Harris said. 

He did not elaborate further on what those measures could be. 

Earlier this month, junior minister in the Department of Transport, Sean Canney, who is responsible for road safety, said his department is exploring possible regulations. 

In a letter to the Irish Times earlier this month, six consultants said there has been a 50% increase in the number of children admitted to hospitals as a result of e-scooter incidents in the last year. They said e-scooters account for more than one-third of all traumatic brain injury admissions to Temple Street.