I am honoured to bring the Bill before the Seanad. It is a substantial Bill that addresses a wide range of necessary areas of legislation and meets a number of commitments in the programme for Government. The Bill will contribute a great deal to improvements on our roads and, above all, to greater safety for all road users.
In the programme for Government, we committed to legislating for e-scooters and e-bikes. We also committed to addressing the menace of the anti-social use of scramblers and other vehicles. The Bill will address all of these issues. It does a great deal more as well. Among the major issues addressed are necessary legislation to underpin delivery of the BusConnects project and to enable the introduction by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, of dynamic traffic management on the M50. It also has measures which address uninsured driving by significant and necessary amendments to existing legislation on the database of insurance policies. It updates the law in areas such as driving instruction, medical fitness to drive and the system of fixed-charge notices issued by traffic wardens.
I wish to acknowledge the role and contribution of the many people and organisations who have contributed to the development of the Bill. In particular, it benefited from the work of the Oireachtas joint committee through the pre-legislative scrutiny process, and from the debates in the Dáil. I note the very constructive advice received from the Data Protection Commissioner in our efforts to ensure that measures such as those on the motor insurance database comply with data protection requirements.
All road traffic law is ultimately intended to contribute to safety on our roads. We have made great progress on road safety in the past 25 years. In 1997, the last year before our first national road safety strategy, 472 people died on Irish roads. In 2021, there were 137 deaths, the lowest on record. Inevitably, there have been ups and downs. Some years have seen increases on the preceding years and it is getting harder to reduce deaths further. Last December, we published our new road safety strategy, covering the years from 2021 to 2030. In line with the programme for Government, this strategy has a focus on vulnerable road users in particular, and is committed to Vision Zero, the EU target of zero deaths and serious injuries on European roads by 2050. The strategy aims to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 50% by the end of the decade.
I mentioned vulnerable road users. This applies particularly to people who are walking and cycling. We want to encourage active and healthy modes of travel, which are not only better for general health and well-being but are also more sustainable as we face the great challenge of climate change. If we are serious about encouraging active travel, we have to make sure that it is safe. There is no doubt that one of the biggest deterrents to people switching to active travel is concern about safety.
As regards the contents of the Bill, first, it seeks to deliver micromobility and legalise the system in respect of powered personal transporters. Road traffic legislation covers a multitude of issues and no Bill can address everything, but anyone who has examined this Bill will agree that it is ambitious and addresses a wide range of issues. Micromobility options such as e-scooters and e-bikes have an important role to play in a future sustainable transport mix. E-scooters have become very popular in recent years, both in Ireland and abroad. As a new mode of transport, they have inevitably raised legal questions.
The questions revolve around, first, where they fit into current road traffic law and, second, how we want them to fit in in future. The answer to the first question is simple. Under current law, electric scooters meet the definition of "mechanically propelled vehicles". This means they cannot be used in a public place without tax, insurance and an appropriate driving licence. Since it is not possible to tax e-scooters because they are not type-approved, and as there is no appropriate category of driving licence for them, e-scooters are currently illegal for use on the public road. We want to change that. We also want to take into account the possibility of other related forms of micromobility options appearing in the future. To do this, the Bill will establish a new vehicle category, called powered personal transporters, PPTs. This new category not only captures e-scooters but also allows for other new and innovative micromobility vehicles that may need regulation in years to come. To be clear, these provisions will not apply to mobility scooters and the existing legislative framework for those vehicles will not be affected.
The Road Traffic Acts provide definitions of various types of vehicles and provide powers to regulate their construction, equipment and use. As with other classes of vehicles, the creation of the new PPT class will allow for the regulation of their construction, equipment and use. Amendments to a number of provisions in existing road traffic legislation will clarify where those provisions do or do not apply to PPTs. Senators may wish to note that, in some important respects, PPTs will be treated similarly to bicycles. As with bicycles, registration, licensing, taxation and insurance will not be required. Once the Bill has been enacted, regulations governing technical standards and use of e-scooters will be made. The provisions in this Bill relating to e-scooters will be commenced in tandem with the completion of those regulations. This will ensure a full legislative framework governing e-scooters can be implemented from the day the regulations are signed into law. Until that time, use of e-scooters in public places will continue to be illegal.
The regulations will set out minimum vehicle standards for e-scooters to ensure they are safe to use and environmentally friendly. When technical standards are introduced in EU member states, a minimum 12-week standstill period is triggered to allow the Commission and the other EU member states time to assess the national draft rules in light of EU competition rules. This process prevents regulatory barriers to the free movement of goods and information services in the Union. This necessary and binding delay allows Ireland to meet our EU obligations under the Single Market transparency directive but also means regulations cannot be introduced immediately after the passage of the Bill. My Department is committed to progressing the regulations to publication as quickly as possible. I am of course aware there is interest in the legislation around e-scooters. There have been many views expressed on such questions, such as where the use of e-scooters should be permitted, whether there should be an age limit, and whether the use of helmets and other personal protective equipment should be required. These are all matters that, in line with the way such matters are addressed for other vehicles, will be addressed in the regulations governing e-scooters and not in primary legislation in the Bill. I add that it is our intention that regulations will provide for e-scooters to be for use by one person only and they will not be permitted to transport goods. This is a matter of safety for people using them and for others in their vicinity. Other issues that have raised interest, such as regulation of e-scooter rental schemes, are not appropriate to road traffic and roads legislation. The Department of Transport has no function in regard to such commercial enterprises. Instead, the governance of any such schemes would be a matter for the local authorities in question.
In addition to addressing the regulation of e-scooters, the Bill will also provide much-needed legal clarity for the growing cohort of e-bike users in Ireland by defining the requirements for low-powered e-bikes and high-powered e-bikes. Low-powered e-bikes, also known as pedelecs, are assisted by pedalling and can reach speeds of up to 25 km/h. We will continue to treat this kind of e-bike in the same way as an ordinary pedal bicycle, and the rules of the road for bicycles will apply accordingly. This type of e-bike will not require registration, taxation, or licensing. High-powered e-bikes, which are those that can be used without pedalling or those that can reach speeds in excess of 25 km/h, will be treated in the same way as light mopeds and therefore will need to be registered, taxed and insured, and used only by an appropriately licensed driver. This is because these e-bikes are capable of speeds up to 100 km/h in some cases and present much greater danger to the user and to other vulnerable road users. This approach allows us to take advantage of the existing legislative framework for mopeds and motorbikes in the Road Traffic Acts and in other legislation in respect of registration, driver training and licensing and so avoids the need to establish new bodies to carry out these vital functions. It also aligns our national rules for e-bikes with the approach taken in other jurisdictions and with the type-approval framework established in Regulation (EU) No. 168/2013, which sets out the rules for two- and three-wheeled vehicles. As we already have a legislative framework in place for bicycles and for light mopeds, the provisions governing e-bikes will come into effect as soon as the Bill is signed into law and subsequent regulations will not be needed.
We also committed in our programme for Government to address the antisocial use of scramblers, quads and other similar vehicles. This is a longstanding problem that can range from a nuisance to a serious danger to health and to life. People who use these vehicles in shared public amenities can ruin the use of those amenities for the communities the amenities are meant to serve. We can all agree we want to put a stop to any such behaviour. Getting the legislation right has not been easy, and I acknowledge the personal input of the Attorney General in arriving at the measures we are proposing. What we will do operates on three levels. First, there will be a new power to specify in regulations that certain types of vehicles are banned from certain areas. This will allow the flexibility needed to deal with this problem on an evolving basis. Second, there will be a new Garda power to seize and dispose of vehicles, whether at the scene of an offence or at the location where the vehicle is kept. This is important because it is often the case that gardaí cannot actually intercept a scrambler or quad where it is being misused without risking the safety of bystanders, or indeed of the rider. Third, we will be amending the offence of dangerous driving so it will apply in all locations and not just in a public place.
I do not have time to go through the entirety of the measures I have in my speech. Suffice it to say the legislation is important to give us the powers to give us BusConnects projects around the country. As I said at the outset, it allows us to introduce enhanced traffic management systems for our motorway operating services, especially variable speeds on the M50, and to put up displays in that regard. The Bill has significant provisions linking driver licence and vehicle ownership records that will again be of huge benefit in the efficient Garda use of our traffic management and regulation systems. It will deliver completion of a national motor insurance database that will be hugely significant in reducing the cost of insurance, getting greater certainty and ensuring we operate within the general data protection regulation. This is significant legislation and I commend it to the House.
