‘Bizarre situation’ where parents buy e-scooters for children must end, Simon Harris says

Tánaiste Simon Harris has called on parents to take responsibility for their children’s safety and stop buying e-scooters and for shops to stop selling them.Every e-scooter in the country will need to be registered from September under a Government plan to “get control back” amid concerns about serious and life-threatening injuries to children.Government leaders agreed new proposals on Monday to ban e-scooters for under-18s.Harris said on Tuesday the figures in relation to incidents involving e-scooters and children were “extraordinarily stark”. READ MOREHe told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland: “Every single day in Ireland now, between one and two children this summer are turning up in emergency departments with e-scooter injuries, and around a third of traumatic head injuries in our children are now being caused by e-scooter injuries. “The biggest cause of children ending up in ICU is e-scooter injuries. So the data’s stark and we have to act.”It was already illegal for those aged under 16 to use e-scooters, but there was a “bizarre situation” where parents were buying them for their children, Harris said. “So the first thing that has to happen in this country, I need to be blunt about this, is behavioural change. There should be no parent in Ireland thinking that an e-scooter is a toy.”Penalties would be applied to parents, he said. “Immediately next month, we’re going to sign regulations that will bring in a number of changes. It’ll actually make it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to be on an e-scooter. It’ll make it mandatory that you wear a helmet, mandatory that you wear high-visibility clothing,” Harris said.“And it will also increase the fines if you breach the rules. But the big change, that won’t be nearly enough. “And I heard the Garda Representative Association and they’re entirely right on this point. The idea that the Garda chasing people around in e-scooters is going to get to the bottom of this is not fair, true. [ I am a detective garda. Here’s why an e-scooter ban is unenforceableOpens in new window ]“So, what we’re actually going to do in the legislation that will be produced in September, and details of which will come to Cabinet next week, is we’re going to change the whole structure here and make the obligation be on the retailer. This is how we’ve made progress in terms of the sale of alcohol. It’s how we’ve made progress in terms of gambling, it’s how we’ve made progress in a load of areas.” Harris said changes would be made at the point of sale and registration of vehicles. “Probably either through a system that will be set up with retailers or the Revenue Commissioners. So we could decide to go for a tax and insurance model. We could decide to go for pay a fee on point of registration.“The point I’m making is you will not be able to just walk into a shop, buy an e-scooter and head off on your merry way.”[ What do you think about e-scooters on Irish roads?Opens in new window ]It was difficult to enforce some laws at present because of the lack of a registration system, he said. The Government is following the evidence of what had worked in other countries, he said. “We don’t ban everything that’s dangerous. What we do is regulate them and put strict rules around them. And at the moment, this is a system that is largely unregulated,” he said. “The big priority is to try to cut off at the point of sale larger problems occurring. And that’s really where our focus needs to be.”