Only a matter of time before somebody was killed by scrambler, Dáil told

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press Association

It was only a matter of time before someone was killed by a scrambler motorbike, the Dáil has been told.

Opposition politicians raised the case of Grace Lynch, a 16-year-old Dublin girl who died after being hit by a scrambler at the weekend, as the Dáil returned on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people took part in a walk in Finglas on Monday night in memory of Grace, where her mother, Siobhan, called for scramblers and e-scooters to be taken off the streets.

In a heartfelt plea, she said that watching her daughter “take her last breath was the worst pain imaginable” and said it was something no parent should have to deal with.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said it was “predictable” that a life would be lost as a result of scramblers, which she described as a “scourge of working class communities” that created a “constant sense of menace”.

Ms McDonald said she hoped the Taoiseach would “hear that anger from Finglas” as she accused governments of having “dragged their heels” on introducing tighter restrictions on scramblers.

She said the Government had brought forward legislation that “didn’t go far enough”, and which had still not been fully enacted.

Ms McDonald said she had spoken to Grace’s mother Siobhan on Monday night and said that she believed action on this issue “would be some consolation” to her.

“So it was in reality only a matter of time before somebody was killed, and now that somebody has a name, her name is Grace Lynch,” she said during Leaders’ Questions.

“Only today, when a child is dead, Government talks about moving quickly, tightening things up and taking action,” Ms McDonald said.

“The absence of any Government urgency in tackling the menace of scramblers is frightening and Taoiseach, this has to change and change fast.”

Taoiseach Micheál Martin expressed his condolences to Grace’s family and said he understood their anger.

He said: “Nothing that I can say can in any way ease the devastation, the pain, the hurt, the anger that Grace’s family feels right now.

“I understand that anger, and I understand the devastation that they’re going through.

“They have lost a beautiful daughter who should be going to school, who should be with her friends today.”

Mr Martin said legislative changes had been proposed previously in the Dáil to tackle the “anti-social use” of scramblers and quad bikes.

He said that they would ban scramblers from public roads, and said it should have happened sooner, but said nothing would “ever ease the devastation that the Lynch family experienced”.

Mr Martin added: “In my view, it will happen, it should have happened in terms of the signing or the formulation and dealing of these regulations.

“I understand fully the anger of the people in working class areas, but particularly in Finglas.

“There should be no scramblers on public roads. We have it within our power to make that happen, and it will happen.”

He said Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan had spoken to Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, who was “attending to this immediately and treating this with the utmost priority”.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik paid tribute to Grace’s mother Siobhan for “showing such courage in the face of such outright grief”.

“The entire country is shaken by Grace’s death,” she told the Dáil.

Ms Bacik welcomed comments from Mr Martin but said this was not a new issue, citing severe injuries suffered by a Lithuanian national after a scrambler landed on him while he was in a Dublin park in 2018.

She also said that “it’s not just scramblers” and said e-scooter-related brain injuries accounted for a quarter of admissions of children to Temple Street Children’s Hospital.

“Scramblers are not toys, they’re powerful machines, they’re being used to intimidate on our streets. They are lethal weapons,” Ms Bacik told the Dáil.

She asked Mr Martin if he would consider an “immediate freeze” on the usage of all scrambler bikes until robust enforcement mechanisms are put in place.

Mr Martin said the Government also had to “move” on e-scooters and said the reports of emergency medicine consultants on brain injuries from e-scooters were “far too high”.

He said: “The scramblers for me is very straightforward, they have no place on our roads, and there’s a lot of other activity related to them, in terms of illegal activity.

“Related to that, we have to move with speed on e-scooters, because the level of injury that’s been reported from consultants in emergency medicine, particularly in terms of brain injury, as well as physical injuries, (is) far too high.”