The decision by two online retailers to remove from sale some e-scooters has been welcomed by a number of politicians.
It comes as Amazon and AliExpress informed the Chair of the Oireachtas Transport Committee that they will not sell e-scooters that are not in compliance with Irish law.
E-scooter users must be at least 16 years of age, and devices used on public roads can’t exceed a design speed of 20km/h.
Fine Gael’s Michael Murphy called on all retailers to follow the lead of the Amazon and AliExpress and pull the sales of e-scooters until they comply with legislation here.
Mr Murphy was informed by Amazon this weekend that the electric foldable e-scooter has been removed from sale and an investigation is now under way at the online retail giant.
Mr Murphy said retailers must take responsibility for how they market and sell e-scooters.
He called on all retailers selling e-scooters, which are marketed at children or are capable of exceeding the legal speed limit, to remove them from sale on their platforms or shop floor.
Meanwhile, Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman also welcomed the move and urged other retailers to follow suit.
In a statement he said that while the decision is welcome, “today you could still go into a toy shop and buy an e-scooter for a child as young as six that is capable of travelling up to 16km/h. These vehicles should be banned outright.”
Earlier this week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil, he was leaning towards banning e-scooters completely, while Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said he would support a ban.
However, questions have been raised about whether existing laws are being adequately enforced.
Public policy adviser Oisín Coghlan has said an outright ban on e-scooters would be a “lazy admission of failure” by the Government that they have not been able to enforce the current rules.
“As someone who suffered severe concussion just two years ago from being knocked off my bicycle by an SUV, I’m very conscious of the risks of and the impacts of mild or traumatic brain injury,” Oisín Coghlan said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Brendan O’Connor with Claire Brock, he said a total ban would be an “overreach” adding that it would be an admission by politicians that they are not “able to manage” their own regulations.
He said it would be a disservice to the people who are “using e-scooters correctly to beat congestion, to fill in for public transport, to get to work when they need to.
“I think 4% of commuters are using e-scooters as part of their journey, so are you are just punishing them because you’re basically failing to control anti-social use of e-scooters or dangerous use of e-scooters,” Mr Coghlan said.
He believes there are a number of steps that could be taken to further regulate e-scooters.
“Instead of going for an all-out ban, you can require licensing and registration and insurance, and you could move it from (age) 16 to 18,” he said.
“You could give the guards the right to stop people to check that they have those things and you could just enforce rules,” he said.
“Like cigarettes, you could ban the sale to under-18s, you could even make parents responsible for making sure that their children don’t have them.”
Mr Coghlan said he believed a temporary ban could be a solution for now.
“Let’s try proper regulation, stricter regulation with all the rules that should be there like motorbikes, and if that doesn’t work in two years’ time, well then let’s revisit it,” he said.