{"id":587543,"date":"2026-07-15T21:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/587543\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:00:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:00:27","slug":"e-scooters-are-being-used-for-drug-dealing-and-intimidation-garda-chief-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/587543\/","title":{"rendered":"E-scooters are being used for drug dealing and intimidation, Garda chief says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

E-scooters are \u201cwithout a doubt\u201d being used for drug dealing in the country\u2019s urban centres, Garda<\/a> Commissioner Justin Kelly<\/a> has told the Oireachtas transport committee. <\/p>\n

Kelly reiterated that he \u201cabsolutely\u201d supports an outright ban on e-scooters, which are also \u201cregularly\u201d being used for drug-related intimidation, he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking before the transport committee on Wednesday, the Garda Commissioner said e-scooters are being used in some areas \u201cto terrorise local communities\u201d with those travelling on them wearing masks or balaclavas. <\/p>\n

The use of e-scooters is \u201crelatively new\u201d, Kelly told politicians, but there are \u201ca lot of things that are really concerning\u201d around their use.<\/p>\n

E-scooters are being used to facilitate localised drug dealing in urban centres, he said. \u201cI think if anyone is observant, particularly here in Dublin in the city centre, you can see it,\u201d said Kelly. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously try and prevent that but they are really difficult for us to deal with, particularly around parks, laneways. It\u2019s very easy for them to evade An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na. <\/p>\n

\u201cDrug-related intimidation, which is an absolute scourge on some of our communities, and really horrendous behaviour [is taking place] towards parents, relations of people who are in debt. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen e-scooters regularly being used for that. We have a number of cases where people have used them to call to people\u2019s houses and make their escape quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Garda Commissioner said users of e-scooters are governed by the same laws as cyclists but there is a \u201ccomplete flouting of the road traffic legislation\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said one problem in particular is e-scooter users passing straight through junctions. Kelly also said there is no legislation in place that requires those travelling on e-scooters to wear helmets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see in some areas people wearing masks and balaclavas going around our communities,\u201d he said. \u201cIn some communities they are using these as an ability really to terrorise local communities. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo see two or three e-scooters and people wearing balaclavas on them, you can imagine the effect that has on some areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly added concerns have been raised by hospital consultants who report e-scooters to be the leading cause of head injuries in children.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged there are challenges with an outright ban and that there are also \u201claw-abiding citizens\u201d who use e-scooters.<\/p>\n

However, he said when he looked at the entire situation, the shift in the balance in favour of a ban \u201chas tipped so far in that direction\u201d. <\/p>\n

Separately, the committee heard about 10 garda\u00ed are currently being prosecuted for road traffic offences that occurred while they were on duty. <\/p>\n

Kelly said garda\u00ed need to have more protections from a legislative point of view in relation to pursuit or prosecutions around road traffic. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo they [10 garda\u00ed] went to work and for whatever reason something has happened during their tour of duty, there\u2019s been an investigation \u2013 these investigations are usually by Fiosr\u00fa, the Police Ombudsman \u2013 and these have resulted in prosecutions of guards while on duty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrequently we see many of these go through the court processes and in some of the cases the guards are acquitted after this. From my point of view, as the Garda Commissioner, I think it\u2019s really important that guards who go out to do their work have the protections they need in place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"E-scooters are \u201cwithout a doubt\u201d being used for drug dealing in the country\u2019s urban centres, Garda Commissioner Justin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,5650,8030,6,19,17,29801,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-587543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fiosru","tag-garda-siochana","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-justin-kelly","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116926010444962934","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}