{"id":269439,"date":"2026-01-29T03:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T03:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/269439\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T03:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T03:20:10","slug":"ban-on-use-of-scramblers-in-public-places-being-planned-following-teenagers-death-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/269439\/","title":{"rendered":"Ban on use of scramblers in public places being planned following teenager\u2019s death \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A ban on the use of scramblers in public places is being planned by the Government as well as stricter regulations for e-scooters and e-bikes.<\/p>\n

It comes after a man appeared in court charged in connection with a crash in Finglas that caused the death of a 16-year-old girl at the weekend. <\/p>\n

Grace Lynch died<\/a> after being hit by a scrambler motorbike as she used a pedestrian crossing on Ratoath Road in Dublin 11 on Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n

In the wake of her death, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> signalled the Government would seek to remove scrambler bikes from the roads. <\/p>\n

Mr Martin and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> met on Wednesday afternoon alongside Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien, Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan and Minister of State at the Department of Transport Se\u00e1n Canney to discuss the matter. Attorney General Rossa Fanning was also present. <\/p>\n

Sources briefed on proceedings said afterwards that an outright ban is being planned on scramblers in public places such as parks and roads. <\/p>\n

There is also a plan to introduce \u201cfar tighter\u201d regulations on e-scooters and e-bikes for safety reasons, a Coalition source said. This includes the use of fines and mandating the use of helmets and high-visibility wear for users. <\/p>\n

The meeting heard regulations banning the use of scramblers on public roads, parks and other places is to be finalised urgently, and decided that drafting of regulations giving effect to this will be completed as a priority before being brought to Cabinet in a few weeks. <\/p>\n

\"GraceGrace Lynch. Photograph: rip.ie <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Man charged over scrambler crash that caused death of girl (16) in FinglasOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

At the meeting of the Fianna F\u00e1il parliamentary party on Wednesday evening, TDs and Senators strongly backed a motion calling for scramblers to be banned in Ireland, except for off-road sporting events. <\/p>\n

The motion called for powers for garda\u00ed to seize, impound and \u2013 where appropriate \u2013 destroy scramblers found in unlawful use or possession after a 30-day amnesty period, where people can voluntarily surrender scrambler motorbikes without penalty or prosecution.<\/p>\n

Dublin Senator Mary Fitzpatrick, who proposed the motion, argued strongly for a complete ban on scramblers from Irish roads. <\/p>\n

A similar call for a full prohibition was made at the Fine Gael meeting in Leinster House. Party leader and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris outlined a number of actions being considered including the banning of scramblers in public places, as well as the immediate confiscation of scramblers, (which will not be returned to their owners).<\/p>\n

The meeting also discussed e-scooters, with the T\u00e1naiste signalling further restrictions, noting that e-scooter collisions are the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries in children.<\/p>\n

There were also calls at the Fianna F\u00e1il meeting for helmets and high-visibility jackets to be made compulsory on e-scooters. <\/p>\n

Earlier in the D\u00e1il, Dublin South Central TD Catherine Ardagh said there was uncertainty among garda\u00ed around the circumstances in which scramblers can be compulsorily seized. She said that also applied to how ownership is established where bikes are unregistered and uninsured, and what happens to seized vehicles where no lawful ownership can be ultimately demonstrated. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Taoiseach pledges to do \u2018anything and everything\u2019 to get scrambler bikes off the roadsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is also public confusion about whether confiscated bikes are ultimately returned, retained or destroyed. That lack of clarity seriously undermines the deterrent effect the legislation is intended to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

She asked the Taoiseach to \u201cconsider a 30-day amnesty surrender and a possible refund scheme to those who own scrambler or quad bikes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin told her he did \u201cnot want to brand everyone but we do not want to be rewarding people who do not need to be rewarded\u201d. <\/p>\n

He would ask the relevant Minister to examine the issue. \u201cWe have done that with knives in the past and it yielded results.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A ban on the use of scramblers in public places is being planned by the Government as well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16186,615,1346,42,1843,43,70,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-269439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-director-of-public-prosecutions","9":"tag-dublin","10":"tag-garda-siochana","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-micheal-martin","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-simon-harris","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}