Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
FIANNA FÁIL HAS said an electric scooters scheme, similar to that of Dublin Bikes, could help solve Dublin’s “commuter misery”.
Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Transport, Tourism, and Sport Marc Mac Sharry said his party are pushing ahead with their Bill to regulate the use of electric scooters.
The Bill, which will be discussed at second stage in the Dáil tomorrow evening, removes the requirement for e-scooters and e-bikes to be taxed and insured by altering the definition of mechanically propelled vehicles.
Currently, e-scooters are not regulated or defined in legislation, making them illegal to use on Irish roads.
The scooters, which have grown in popularity in recent years, are now becoming a common sight in Irish cities and pressure has grown on the government to address the gap in legislation.
In August, a report by the Road Safety Authority recommended changes to how the increasingly popular mode of transport is regulated. On foot of the report, Transport Minister Shane Ross launched a public consultation on the issue starting in September.
However, Mac Sharry has said users are left in limbo with no regulations.
“The use of e-scooters is growing in popularity with commuters and companies in our cities offering e-scooter rental to tourists. There needs to be clarity brought to their use as they are in a legal limbo.
“As it stands, e-scooter users should have insurance, road tax and a driving licence, with penalties under road traffic laws, including fixed charge notices, penalty points, fines and possible seizure of the vehicle, for not being in compliance with these requirements.
“Despite this, it is currently not possible to tax or insure e-scooters, so they are essentially illegal on Irish roads,” he said.
He added that amendments can be made to their proposed legislation, but allowing the Bill to pass would ensure that it reaches Committee Stage (where amendments can be discussed to the proposed new law) at the same time the public consultation concludes.
“The reality is that e-scooters will be used, especially among young people. They offer a green alternative to commuters making short journeys around the city and suburbs. E-scooters have the potential to reduce congestion and emissions.
‘Commuter misery’
Mac Sharry said that instead of talking about rule changes, his Bill will get things moving and help with the “commuter misery” people are experiencing on a daily basis in the capital.
Spokesperson for Dublin John Lahart said the transport minister has to recognise the changing methods of commuting.
“We need to regulate for the safe use of e-scooters and electric bicycles. Our cycle lanes, bus lanes, and roads in Dublin are changing and carrying different modes of transport. This will only continue as we seek to meet our climate action goals with carbon friendly methods of transport,” he said, adding that regulating for the safe use of e-scooters can “go some way to addressing the congestion crisis in Dublin city”.
Having met with some of the e-scooter manufacturers, Lahart said they offer an “exciting opportunity” for an alternative form of transport in Dublin city.
Like the Dublin Bikes scheme, Lahart said e-scooters for rent “could be part of a smart city strategy”.
Having e-scooters for rent alongside bikes will ensure lessons are learned from other jurisdictions, said Lahart, who added that it would ensure that electric scooters are not left abandoned on the side of the street like they are in other cities.
In terms of the details of the Bill, it proposes that e-scooters can only be used on cycle lanes, and are prohibited from pedestrianised areas and pathways. It also suggests that helmets should be mandatory, and the speed limit set at 25 kilometres per hour.
To ensure speeds are adhered to, the Bill suggests that manufacturers would have to ensure all electric scooters have speedometers installed. Existing scooters, which do not have such devices would also have to have them installed, though Lahart said this would be a matter the Road Safety Authority would deal with.
Mac Sharry said there had been some misunderstandings in media coverage to date about the degree of fines electric scooter users could face.
While he said Class C and D fines sets out that fines could be as much as €1,500 to €2,000, Mac Sharry said such issues would be at the discretion of the courts. He said fines could refined further. He added that speeding fines could be similar to speeding fines on the road or maybe less, giving a figure of €60 or €70.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Another suicide. If we’d only seen the signs.
Can they just not capitalise on the fact that they have a unique tourist attraction in their town – turn it into a unique heritage centre – Yes, some mad ones will want to hijack it for glorifying Hitler but the law can deal with that . What an attraction to have in ones town from a historical and tourist point of view.
I say milk it for what’s it’s worth
Only difference between ends and Hitler is hilter mass killed people . Enda and his government are drivng people to death with their austerity measures. A lot of people who have taken their own life is put down to the recession and austerity measures . What happened in Germany was horrific but this country now has dictatorship wether you want to believe it or not.
Shut up!
“This country now has a dictatorship”
*except that you get to vote the ‘dictator’ out at the next election…
Do you actually understand what a dictatorship is? If Ireland was a dictatorship there’d be no elections next year or no referendums.
Idiots like Dave really drag the Journal down.
Dave, actually suicide statistics are a downward trajectory since the early 2001 – 2012. Some link below, so Rates have suicide have dropped during the austerity years!
and the illusion continues that we live in a democracy.
And Dave just Godwinned
It’s not fair to compare Enda to Hitler. Hitler actually fixed his economy.
Didn’t he die in Berlin?
Argentina. He died there. People who have been saying that were called ‘nutjobs previously but according to newly released FBI documents that’s were he was. The FBI believed he fled to Argentina on a U Boat and agents searching for him there. For political reasons, not much more was made of it and the whole affair was let go silent.
http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines/fbi-opens-files-proving-hitler-went-to-argentina
As usual, due to very low standard of journalism these days nothing is mentioned about this above.
Tell you what Horgay, why don’t you become a journalist and improve the system from the inside since you’re always complaining about poor journalistic standards….
There is also speculation that he was actually helped over there by the U.S. Government in exchange for the nazis scientific innovations. But again this is all speculation and conspiracy theories.
Why the red thumbs for the chap stating facts that he escaped …cos he did
Did The Bush Family Help Hitler Into Power?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBKMN-pdp6M&feature=player_detailpage#t=0
He did flee to Argentina and lived out his life in some quiet mountain town. Was discussing it online with an Argentinian woman who said it was common knowledge since the 70s over there. Again the level of real journalism has gone down big time.
There will be many a tear shed in the SF/IRA offices today in memory of their great hero.
Brian, Girvin, Dan Breen wept all day,The Emergency, Macmillan, p1.
Off to work with yis all!
Anti-fascists stomping around demanding something gets “out”! The irony.
I visited the Eagles nest last year, all that is left of its residence is the defence tunnels. Everything I have seen condemns Hitler, I have seen nothing that praises him.
The “West” German monument in Mauthausen Concentration Cam starts with the line “o mother, poor Mother, look what your sons have done to you —-
We can trust the Austrians to handle it well
…you should talk to the older generation of austrians/Germans. …people who were alive during the 33-45 period
The Russians took his dead body. He did not R.I.P. after they finished with him. Some nazis ended up in South America but Hitler most certainly did not.
Should 70 years today Hitler escaped and lived in South America ..don’t forget Hitler was never convicted in absentia ….escaped with the help of the CIA and Alan Dulles ….All orchestrated by Martin Bormann and took vast amount of wealth with …All the evidence is in the book and film Grey Wolf by Gerrard Williams and Simon Dunstan 2 well respected journalists ….you will never see that movie on TV as they wanted us to think he died ….
Boorman died in Berlin during the breakout from the bunker. If Hitler made it to South America then there is very little evidence to support it. Unlike Mengele, for example who did make it and to which there is plenty of concrete evidence left behind. Good story though!
When did Enda die
Get a life Dave.
A better title would have been.
Inhumane monstrous coward takes own life and dies pathetically.
^you should also talk to the older generation of austrians / Germans. ..
Isn’t it a known fbi fact that hitler fled to Argentina then America . Dna from the skeleton s proved it wasn’t hitler at all ..
Yes, it’s a “known fbi fact”
Didn’t realise the FBI now published all their ‘facts’…
“FBI facts” are a special class, right up there with “recent wikipedia edits made from secondary school libraries”
de Valera was gutted, or should have been the imbecile, the only clown on the planet to sympathies when Adie finally got something right. Even if Inda’s “madly deeply European’ gibberish was just as cringe worthy.
There was a documentary on sky about it ..
Martin and Glenn know this all for a fact. After all, they saw it on the History Channel!
What ! OMG…
He did Nazi that coming
Read “doppleganger” by Hugh Thomas. .a Welsh forensic scientist who makes an incredible argument for Hitler being murdered in the bunker in the last hours before the soviets arrived.it is very well thought out and makes compelling and logical conclusions based on historical fact and the man’s widespread forensic experience..though he leaves the final question up to the reader to answer.mr Thomas has written a number of well recieved books on the period and I remember while spending a week in Berlin in the company of a gentleman who new Rudolf hess quite well,same gentleman becoming rather flustered when Hugh tomas’ writing on Hitler and hess was mentioned.food for thought.
Without a body and given the bunker was destroyed almost seventy years ago, not sure how much of that book would guess work rather than factual, Hitlers secretary is the only interview I heard about the bunker and shortly after he dictated their (his and Eva’s) will killed himself. The Russians got the body cremated the remains and sometime in the 1970′s disposed of them in a Russian river. Nice to think it wasn’t his own doing though..
@HRH The brummie.Actually there was a fair amount of access and photos taken in the summer of 45.The problem is most things re the bunker were like a case of Chinese whispers.for instance when those released from soviet captivity realised their version was at odds with western captives they promptly changed it and so on and so forth.The bible on the bunker for the first 40 yrs has always been Hugh Trevor roper’s the final days of Adolf Hitler.A book where Mr Thomas successfully points out many inaccuracies, a number of which were in the end admitted to by Trevor roper.Mr roper a very famous historian himself… who by the way signed off on the fake Hitler diaries published many editions of his book and more than once had to backtrack on information thought solid in previous editions..SPOILER ALERT….in the end Mr thomas’eveidence strongly points to Hitler being strangled by his valet waffen ss standartenfuher linge. I guess in the end the butler did it.
have your say