After a shocking episode where a young Garda recruit was injured in an incident involving a suspected drug  dealer, here's why gardaí are now demanding new e-scooter licence laws

Published: 22:46, 2 July 2026 | Updated: 22:46, 2 July 2026 Gardaí have called for new laws requiring people to obtain a licence to operate e-scooters and e-bikes after a young recruit was injured in an incident involving a teenage suspected dealer. The shocking events happened in the Cappagh area of Finglas in northwest Dublin on Wednesday afternoon, in the same area where tragic Grace Lynch, 16, was knocked down and killed by a scrambler bike in January this year. Officers had been carrying out proactive patrols in the area when they spotted and stopped a boy in his mid-teens on an e-scooter. The confrontation escalated and the young garda was struck by the vehicle – and now faces potential surgery to fix his knee. Now, the Garda Representative Association (GRA), through its rep for west Dublin, Detective Mark Ferris, is calling for licensing infrastructure to be brought in as a way of curbing the use of the electrically powered vehicles, which have become particularly popular with criminals, because they are inherently difficult for gardaí to pursue and doing so is fraught with danger. Det Gda Ferris told the Irish Daily Mail a suite of new measures is needed to tackle the issue, including ‘a system of State-issued licences and stricter regulation for these vehicles’. A total of ten people have been killed in incidents involving e-scooters since records began in 2020, four of them children, while hundreds have been injured. The latest death came on Monday this week, when 17-year-old Janis Ozols died after falling from an e-scooter in Carlow. The incident on Wednesday saw the suspect apprehended after striking the garda, and officers discovered he was carrying a quantity of cannabis. The boy, who is understood to be 15 years old, is one of many youths on gardaí’s radar for the facilitation of drug dealing in the area. He was arrested and has since been released with a file sent to the Youth Diversion Programme, which allows young people to avoid a conviction so long as they own up to their guilt. This is the second time in two months that a garda has been hospitalised in the west Dublin region after an incident involving a youth and high-powered vehicle. In early May, an officer was knocked down by a scrambler bike in the Hartstown area of Dublin 15. Following the death of Grace Lynch earlier this year, new legislation known as ‘Grace’s Law’ was introduced, imposing a complete ban on the use of scramblers, quad bikes and similar off-road vehicles in public places. However, gardaí want to go a step further and believe that making a licence mandatory for their use will help reduce the number of fatalities. Detective Mark Ferris, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) rep for west Dublin A spokesman said: ‘The Garda Commissioner [Justin Kelly] has stated publicly that training in pursuit driving is a priority for him and has indicated that pursuit driving training is currently being developed.’ Det Gda Ferris said that despite the new laws, gardaí have not been trained in pursuit, often relying on intelligence as to where the vehicles are being kept so they can go into homes and seize them. This is because there is no safe way of pursuing people, often youths, if they take off away from gardaí, he explained. Det Gda Ferris said that he had been in contact with the injured garda and has once again called for officers to be fully trained in safe pursuits. He said: ‘He [the injured garda] is in good spirits and was kept in for further scans/interventions. ‘In DMR [Dublin Metropolitan Region] West, members are being disproportionately impacted by e-scooter and scrambler-related incidents. He added that gardaí need a practical response to the problem, explaining: ‘This means dedicated pursuit training tailored to e-scooters and scramblers; an agreed tactical framework setting out safe intervention practices and clear disengagement points; appropriate equipment... and, in the longer term, a system of State-issued licences and stricter regulation for these vehicles.’ Regarding the ongoing attacks on officers, Det Gda Ferris added: ‘The men and women of An Garda Síochána are entitled to carry out their duties without facing deliberate and targeted attacks. No one signed up for that level of risk. Too many offenders now feel emboldened to attack gardaí in uniform and that has to stop. ‘I believe we should be very careful not to follow the UK down a path where criminals believe they can assault police with impunity because the wider discourse has turned against them.’ In an interview with the Mail last month, Garda Chief Superintendent Des McTiernan observed that children are being lured into a life of crime and that scramblers, e-bikes and e-scooters have become their vehicle of choice. The youngsters can deal drugs quickly and evade gardaí by travelling on grass and other terrain on which it is more difficult for patrol cars to pursue them. Gardaí have carried out a number of days of action since the launch of Operation Meacán, an initiative designed to tackle the use of scramblers, e-bikes and e-scooters for criminal purposes. It began at the start of this year. This coincided with the tragic death of 16-year-old Grace, who was killed when she was struck by a scrambler in Finglas, north Dublin, in January. Tragic teenager Janis Ozols lost his life after suffering a fall from an e-scooter in Carlow Grace’s Law was enacted in April 2026. This imposed a complete ban on the use of scramblers, quad bikes and similar off-road vehicles in public places. Research by doctors at Children’s Health Ireland at Temple Street in Dublin, published this week, found there has been ‘a clear and concerning rise’ in e-scooter-related injuries among patients at the hospital since the vehicles were legalised in May 2024. The study revealed there were 37 children who suffered an e-scooter-related injury in the first eight months of 2025 compared to 12 for all of 2024. The average age of patients was 12 years old, while the youngest victim was just three, and was being carried as a passenger on an e-scooter. The Department of Justice and Department of Transport were contacted for comment. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.