The Irish Examiner used the document’s language, almost word for word, to argue for expanding the Irish military.

A senior organiser of Catherine Connolly’s presidential campaign will announce her candidacy for this year’s Galway West by-election this weekend.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly has stressed that those who ‘casually’ consume cocaine, often on nights out, are contributing to organised crime.

**— There's no paywall here thanks to IrishCycle.com subscribers. Help keep it that way, andsupport independent journalism today. ** **— How does it make sense for teens who are already banned or over-16s who are using illegal devices to be stopped by Gardaí** **for not wearing helmets or high-vis?** **Comment & Analysis: **A Government plan to add a legal requirement for scooter users to wear high-vis and helmets when most problematic e-scooter use is already banned, but just not enforced, worrying shows that the Government is edging further away from evidence-based road safety and further towards Kafkaesque methods. The plans, as reported by The Irish Times, do not make sense and will be seen by many as another example of Seán Canney, Minister of State with responsibility for road safety, trying to adjust his image by appearing to be doing something about the increasing number of deaths. If there are legal issues with enforcing the current rules — which isn’t clear but hinted at in an Irish Times article yesterday — then fix those issues. Enforcing existing rules would eliminate 99% of problematic e-scooter use. The reason for this is that children under 16 years old are already banned, using footpaths is banned, and exceeding 20km/h is banned. Despite the vehicles used by motorists being linked to nearly every road death each year, the speed restriction we apply to e-scooters is far stricter — the only e-scooters allowed on our roads are those with a hard lock exceeding 20km/h. To be clear, 20km/h is an unrealistic limit not only because it’s a max speed that is slower than what most people cycling can easily reach without much effort, but mainly because it effectively bans a high percentage of e-scooters that can be bought in Ireland or easily imported. While IrishCycle.com has reported on e-scooter issues, it has not advocated for e-scooter use for two main reasons: most scooters are not well-suited to our roads (including small wheels and low profile of their rear lights), and the more powerful models with larger wheels and better brakes are the ones inevitably going to be banned. Even if manufacturers were to produce safer e-scooters which are not faster than the limit (or where that limit cannot be easily bypassed), this would likely bring the devices over the allowed weight for e-scooters under Irish law. Some scooter advocates pointed out the contradictions in the approach taken, but they were not listened to. Evidence from other countries shows it is hard to enforce rules once a whole new class of vehicles are allowed. The last Government (which is largely made up of the same parties as this Government), former transport minister Eamon Ryan, and the Road Safety Authority are all partly responsible for the mess of scooter regulations. It was one of the most complicated revisions of the Road Traffic Acts, using a huge amount of time and resources at a time when road deaths were trending up. The Irish Times also reported on how Shane Moynihan, a Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin Midwest, wants a registration and licence plate system for e-scooters. He claimed in the Dáil that such a system would “heighten awareness around the need to be accountable” and make it “easier for the gardaí to deal with” illegal behaviours. But while Irish cities and towns are seeing a surge in illegal bicycle-shaped mopeds and full-on scrambler motorcycles without number plates speeding around our streets, how does adding another legal requirement to those already breaking the law help anything? If new law is needed regarding the enforcement of these devices — and their destruction once — then so be it. But looking to high-vis and helmets is a performative approach to road safety and law enforcement. It’s a distraction from the current rules that need to be enforced generally, and also by officers trained to stop or track electric devices being used recklessly. The approach that Canney says he is taking appeases the worst Facebook commentators (many of whom might sound a bit more reasonable when they email their TDs), but makes no sense and does nothing for road safety. ### Share this: * Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky * Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon * Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn * Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram * Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * ### Like this: Like Loading... ### _Related_ **— You read the article. If you're not subscribed yet, please join our subscribers andsupport independent journalism today.. **