{"id":583587,"date":"2026-08-05T04:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T04:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/583587\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T04:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T04:04:12","slug":"e-scooters-and-e-bikes-among-90-vehicles-seized-by-gardai-in-dublin-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/583587\/","title":{"rendered":"E-scooters and e-bikes among 90 vehicles seized by garda\u00ed in Dublin \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 90 vehicles, including 75 e-bikes and e-scooters<\/a>, have been seized by garda\u00ed <\/a>across Dublin<\/a> as part of a \u201chigh-impact day of action\u201d to tackle illegal use of the vehicles.<\/p>\n

Officers carried out 74 searches across the Dublin region as part of Operation Meac\u00e1n on Tuesday, resulting in five individuals being arrested.<\/p>\n

Alongside the e-bikes and e-scooters, garda\u00ed seized seven Surron bikes, four scrambler motorcycles and three quad vehicles.<\/p>\n

Some \u20ac8,000 in cash, suspected drugs believed to be valued in excess of \u20ac100,000 and a sawn-off shotgun with ammunition were also seized.<\/p>\n

A man in his 20s was arrested in connection with the firearm seizure and is being held under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act at a Dublin Garda station. <\/p>\n

A second male was arrested on foot of a bench warrant, while three other men were arrested and are currently detained for drug-related offences.<\/p>\n

Det Supt Jason Miley said more than 100 garda\u00ed were involved in the west Dublin operation and another 200 were likewise engaged in the city centre.<\/p>\n

He said tackling e-scooter usage <\/a>can be \u201cchallenging\u201d but added there is an \u201corganisational focus on ensuring that we do as much as we can with the legislation that we have\u201d.<\/p>\n

Supt Liam Geraghty said there was an opportunity for those who use e-scooters to \u201cget themselves road-ready and road-legal\u201d.<\/p>\n

On a daily basis, there are e-scooters being seized across the city and countrywide where necessary.<\/p>\n

He said a \u201cmajor step forward\u201d in tackling illegal e-scooter use is the number of retailers that have removed the sale of e-scooters marketed towards children or that break the 20km\/h limit. <\/p>\n

A Garda source said e-scooter <\/a>searches are being conducted alongside drug searches, based on intelligence aimed at identifying individuals involved in criminal activity.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed at checkpoints will use portable dynamometers to measure the locked and unlocked speed of an e-scooter to check its legality. <\/p>\n

Hi-viz jackets and helmets are now mandatory under new e-scooter regulations that came into effect at the beginning of August. The new laws also extended the ban from under-16s to under-18s. From September, every e-scooter user in the Republic will require a licence and registration.<\/p>\n

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly<\/a> last month told an Oireachtas committee that he agreed with calls for a ban on e-scooters, saying society would be \u201cbetter off\u201d without them. Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said he was \u201cleaning towards\u201d introducing a total ban on the machines after a series of incidents involving young people resulted in deaths and serious injuries.<\/p>\n

Operation Meac\u00e1n, which began in December 2023 in the Dublin Metropolitan Region, targets the use of electric motorbikes, e-scooters and e-bikes <\/a>for criminal activity including drug distribution, money laundering, transporting firearms, drug-related intimidation and other serious offences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost 90 vehicles, including 75 e-bikes and e-scooters, have been seized by garda\u00ed across Dublin as part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-583587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583587","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=583587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}