Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has said that when it comes to tackling the scourge of mopeds, scramblers, and quads tearing through our communities, the Government is either uninterested or so uncoordinated as to be incapable of policing these dangerous vehicles that are a direct threat to the life and safety of people, particularly the young and elderly, some of whom are frightened to walk down their own street for fear of being knocked down.<\/p>\n
Teachta Crowe said that the Government position on these mopeds, quads, and scramblers was changing week to week and that it is impossible to get a straight answer even from one government department as another will actually contradict it.<\/p>\n
Teachta Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn response to a question I put to him this week, Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan said that he is \u2018acutely aware of the severe difficulties and dangers this activity caused in the communities\u2019. The Minister also said that the Garda Commissioner had suggested potential legislative changes which could assist in improving policing in this area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn response to a similar question, Minister for Transport Shane Ross said that his officials are \u2018currently exploring a possible approach in the legislation\u2019 and that the passing of this legislation was only dependent on the formation of a new Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, in a response to my party colleague Darren O\u2019Rourke TD only two weeks ago, Transport Minister Ross said that he had been advised that the Garda authorities were satisfied that it has the necessary powers to deal with cases concerning the use of these scramblers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat changed in the space of those two weeks?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is the official position of government when it comes to these vehicles and what is the position of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na regarding the need for legislative change?<\/p>\n
\u201cOr is it down to inaction and the legislation is in fact sufficiently strong for them to act.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a Dublin South West TD, I don’t know from these answers, but more importantly the communities I represent and who have to endure these quads, scramblers, and mopeds driving around their parks green spaces and estates for years don’t know. It is impossible to get a straight answer on an issue that has been undermining the quality of life of many of our citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first raised this issue a number of years ago, the Minister replying was unaware of any problems so I suppose there has been at least some development in the governments understanding of the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, there is widespread confusion in government on what the position is, as the different answers and the replies from the Department of Transport clearly show.<\/p>\n
\u201cFine Gael TDs who show up at residents\u2019 meetings are also at odds with their Ministerial colleagues\u2019 inaction. They promise new legislation, but deliver absolutely nothing to address the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe entire approach from successive governments has been one of denial, delay, confusion, stalling, and the rejection of any attempts by the Opposition to keep our communities safe. A Sinn F\u00e9in Bill was dismissed, and voted down with claims that it wouldn\u2019t work and was \u2018unnecessary\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that people have been killed and injured by these vehicles. We know that their use has turned many green spaces and parks into no go areas. We know that they are driven daily on the paths and roads of estates in cities and towns throughout Ireland and yet we are told legislation might or might not be needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEstablishing a cross-department group that meets intermittently or only as a box ticking exercise is deceptive and does not deliver anything for communities eagerly waiting for solutions. We need decisive answers, clear ideas, and new approaches to eliminate this ever-growing problem facing communities. Clearly, this dysfunctional government are incapable of clear answers and are all at odds when it comes to workable solutions to combat the menace of the illegal use of quads, scramblers, and mopeds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has said that when it comes to tackling the scourge of mopeds, scramblers, and quads tearing through our communities, the Government is either uninterested or so uncoordinated as to be incapable of policing these dangerous vehicles that are a direct threat to the life and safety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4191,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions\/4191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}