Irish lawmaker proposes to take electric scooters out of a legal gray area

DUBLIN – Ireland is set to catch up with the rest of Europe on electric scooters with a new bill that would legalize vehicles.

Alan Farrell, member of parliament for the Fine Gael coalition party, on Monday introduced the bill to create legal status for e-scooters on Irish roads.

Electric scooters have been around in a legal gray in Ireland for years because the current traffic laws do not allow them. That hasn’t stopped private electric scooters from taking to the streets.

But a lack of legal certainty has prevented electric scooter sharing companies like Lime and Tier from entering the market.

Farrell’s bill, if passed, would allow private and shared scooters to use roads and bike paths, capped at 25 km / h and for people over 16. Unlike testing in the UK this year, the bill does not require the user to have a provisional driving license.

“Our law in Ireland currently explicitly excludes a bicycle from licensing and registration and what I’m trying to do for simplicity is that a personal light electric vehicle or electric scooter is treated as a bike, ”Farrell told CNBC.

Over the summer, the UK ramped up the introduction of electric scooter testing to the country, which left Ireland as one of the last major European markets to legislate for vehicles. At the same time, the Irish government has announced new investments in cycling infrastructure amid the pandemic, but no progress has been made on e-scooters.

Farrell’s bill is not the first attempt to change the law. In September 2019, another lawmaker introduced a bill to legalize e-scooters, but it withered after the dissolution of the Dáil (the lower house) ahead of the general election in February.

Farrell said he expects his bill to be successful because the agenda for the government included a commitment to legislate on micro-mobility vehicles and the Highway Safety Authority recommended their legalization. .

The bill will be examined by the Ministry of Transport, which can request amendments, and will enter at different stages by both houses of Parliament. The best-case scenario, Farrell said, would be for the bill to pass in late January.

“I am quite convinced that the bill is legally robust enough to pass within the ministry.”

Several large electric scooter-sharing companies have lobbied previous and current Irish governments and Dublin City Council to follow their European counterparts.

Lime, whose EMEA headquarters are in Dublin despite the lack of services there, co-signed a letter to Prime Minister Micheál Martin in June as he took office to advocate his case. The Daimler and BMW Free Now joint venture and Irish start-ups Moby, Bleeper and Zipp Mobility also signed the letter.

“Other countries have made the deployment of micro-mobility a key step to support their reopening, it is time for Ireland to do the same,” the letter said.

Sweden’s Voi wrote to Green Party leader and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan in July to urge the government to “go with the flow” after testing began in the UK.

A spokesperson for Voi said he welcomed the efforts to move the regulations forward.

Charlie Gleeson, chief executive of Zipp Mobility, a Dublin-based start-up that launched in a handful of UK cities this year, told CNBC he supports Farrell’s bill.

“We have learned a lot from the UK. We are operational, we are currently expanding our business across the UK,” said Gleeson.

“We want to talk about the pros and cons, what has been done well in the UK and what has been done a little wrong and see if we can help both the government and the councils to change any legislation and to make it the best it can be. “

Gleeson said UK practices such as the Department for Transport’s assessment process for scooters for road suitability should be replicated in Ireland.

He added that clear rules were needed on where electric scooters can be used and parked.

“I don’t think they should be allowed on the trails at all. This is where we saw problems in other countries and particularly in the UK as well. There were a few projects where a lot of people were driving on the sidewalks, ”he said.

“It is very important to make people aware that scooters are made for the road and not for the trails and I think that is how it is going to be legislated in Ireland.”