The Minister for Justice has said he would like to see legislation passed to provide gardaĆ with greater protection when pursuing vehicles.
Jim O’Callaghan was speaking to the media following an informal meeting of EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in Dublin on Friday, reports Breaking News.
Asked about whether gardaĆ could be granted greater legal protections when pursuing e-scooters and e-bikes, O’Callaghan said: “I would like to see that type of legislation progressed.”
He said he had spoken to transport ministers Darragh O’Brien and SeĆ”n Canney about the issue and said that in the UK, police constables have “specific statutory protections” for when they are “in pursuit of somebody during the course of their work,” reports Breaking News.
“I would like to see something like that within the Irish legal system,” he added.
On Tuesday, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly told an Oireachtas committee that pursuit training is currently limited to “very specialist units.”
He said there are plans to train more garda members, but resourcing issues caused by Ireland’s EU presidency mean that will not happen until next year, reports Breaking News.
Kelly also said he was “really concerned” about gardaĆ “on the front line” and said there are currently 10 before the courts for alleged dangerous driving or careless driving incidents which occurred during the course of their duty.
Government leaders are due to meet on Monday to discuss e-scooters and O’Callaghan was asked if he supported an outright ban on the vehicles, reports Breaking News.
“I’m not going to preempt any discussion that’s going to take place on Monday,” he said. “There’s obviously a balancing act that needs to be weighed up here.”
“It is an ongoing discussion,” he added, “and I think you’ll be hearing more from government next week,” reports Breaking News.
On Wednesday, Children’s Health Ireland released a report which said the number of children and young people being admitted with traumatic brain injuries as a result of e-scooter accidents has risen by 50% in a year and now accounts for a third of all traumatic brain injury admissions.
O’Callaghan was asked whether he was happy with the enforcement of laws banning the use of e-scooters by under-16s, reports Breaking News.
He responded: “No matter what laws we have, no matter what level of enforcement we’re going to see, there are going to be examples of people breaking the law, no matter what the law is.”
What was “really worrying” about the CHI report, he said, was that “it’s clearly the case that people who have accidents on e-bikes are really exposed to very serious injuries, and that’s apparently happening at present. So, again, we need a broad response to this,” reports Breaking News.
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