After the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the Minister for Transport announced an important measure to ban scrambler bikes in the wake of the tragic death of Grace Lynch. That measure is vitally needed and must come with greater enforcement. From media reports, I understand a second proposal was withdrawn at or before the meeting that would have made helmets and high-vis jackets mandatory for people using e-scooters, e-bikes and ordinary pushbikes. An Garda Síochána would be empowered to fine those without a helmet making this a criminal matter. No EU country makes helmets mandatory for cyclists on a push bike because they know that to criminalise the users of ordinary bikes in this way makes no sense. It would overnight row back the significant progress made over the past ten years in the uptake of cycling. How would Dublinbikes or Bleeper work if a helmet is mandatory? The ability of a bike to facilitate a simple daily activity is suddenly constrained if merely cycling your bike is criminalised. Of course, helmets are an important part of how cyclists can protect themselves but criminalising the absence of a helmet is basically saying that we are going to reduce cycling deaths and injuries by reducing cycling itself. Yesterday at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport, we heard from cycling organisations about the measures they want to see implemented to make them safer so we do not see 14 cyclists die on our roads this year like we did last year. We heard their' frustration at the Government's U-turn on a decision that was made by the previous Government to split the Road Safety Authority to allow it to focus on its safety mandate and they voiced real anger at the Government's decision to delay the introduction of life-saving 30 km/h zones in built-up areas. Here are actual policy proposals, evidence-based, that will make journeys safer for all vulnerable road users, including cyclists, yet the proposal the Government seems to be prioritising is one that puts all the responsibility back on the cyclist, and not on the dangerous road environment we have to negotiate and the big cars that knock us down. IrishCycle.com reports that the Tánaiste is one of the main people pushing mandatory helmets for cyclists on a push bike. I do not know if that is true. Is it true? Is he aware that mandatory helmets for cyclists is seen as the primary barrier to new people taking up cycling in jurisdictions like Australia where it is in place? Why has the Government chosen to push this unevidenced measure when there are so many other steps it could take to make our roads safer for those of us on a bike and for everyone else?

Sentiment score: 0.12

I welcome the Tánaiste's confirmation that there are no proposals for mandatory helmets for cyclists using pushbikes. This would have been hugely damaging to the transition we are seeing and the supports we are seeing for people taking up cycle. We agree on the point of the need to differentiate between pushbikes and the electronically powered vehicles. Some of those vehicles, particularly scooters, are a major driver of brain injuries and many of those are already illegal. Under 16s using them is already a crime. The souped-up scooters are already illegal. The enforcement of those laws is key. Continuing in this spirit of agreement, I ask that the Tánaiste looks closely at what was said at the transport committee meeting yesterday by his former colleague, Ciarán Cannon. There is real anger about steps that the Government has taken in the past 12 months that are seen as directly damaging to road safety for all vulnerable users but particularly for cyclists.

Sentiment score: -0.13