Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD, Seán Crowe, has welcomed the passing of an amendment to the Road Traffic Bill 2016 which will give the National Transport Authority new powers to regulate the operation of rickshaws.

Crowe, who spoke on the amendment in the Dáil, said he had written to the Minister for Transport, Shane Ross, during the summer to highlight the lack of any legislation covering rickshaws, and said he was concerned at the serious health and safety issues. The Government and Minister Ross opposed the change but were roundly defeated by 58 votes to 50.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“During the summer I wrote to Minister Ross outlining my particular concerns about the lack of any regulation around rickshaws. The obvious health and safety issues, as well as the added dangers these drivers are currently causing for other road users and vulnerable passengers, needs to be urgently addressed.

“My party, Sinn Féin, tabled this amendment to address a serious gap in legislation which has left rickshaw operators entirely unregulated. With an increase in the amount of rickshaw operators it was completely unacceptable that this whole sector was allowed to develop without any oversight or even the most basic regulation.

“This is a serious road safety issue, and I am delighted that the amendment was successfully passed. Many passengers were essentially putting their health and safety at risk with no insurance or comeback if an accident happened.

“I have been raising this matter with the Minister since the summer and it is clear that he was in no rush to legislate on this matter. It left us with a situation where this whole sector was completely unregulated. Currently operators are not obliged to register rickshaws and there are concerns that they are being operated by unqualified persons. This leaves operators, passengers, and other road users in a legal wasteland should an accident or dispute arise.”

Crowe continued:

“There is currently no record or standard to judge if a rickshaw is roadworthy. Simple things like do the brakes work, are the tyres are fit for purpose, that the body of the rickshaws have no sharp edges, or that they are even anyway safe to operate on the road currently, don’t apply.

“Clearly other road users and passengers should have access to legislation should a traffic accidents or incidents occur involving these rickshaws.

“These anomalies needed to be addressed. As a minimum, rickshaw operators need to registered, basic health and safety regulations drawn up, and applied to the sector. The rules of the road should apply to all users.

“Minister Ross told us that he was hoping to prepare legislation to fill this gap in 2017, but he has been promising to legislate on this matter for an extremely long time now, and in all conscience we couldn’t, in the interest of passengers and other road users, afford to wait any longer.

“The amendment put forward was designed to amend the Taxi Regulations Act 2013 and will authorise the National Transport Authority to regulation of the sector. We need to see rickshaws operate in a licensed, regulated, tax and safety compliant manner. This would benefit road users, rickshaw operators, and all the potential passengers.”

ENDS