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Fingal Council Plan for eScooters

The long-anticipated regulations that will permit e-scooter sharing services across Ireland are expected to be bought before the Dáil soon.

Fingal County Council has requested that players within this micro-mobility sector present their case on how they plan to provide services, including shared escooters and ebikes.

The council is in the progress of laying out the requirements for expected legislation for escooters on roads in Ireland. Ireland is still one of the last markets in Europe where the laws to permit escooter sharing has not yet been passed. However, Eamon Ryan, TD, Minister for Transport has said he is working on ways to enact this legislation.

Before that, Fingal County Council issued requests for information (RFI) from both the public and market for their opinions on ebikes and escooters in the region, what the licensing may look like, how these scooters or bikes are going to be used in areas, public parks and on streets that the council owns.

The RFI has allowed businesses to present best practices on how to deploy micro-mobility vehicles. It also lets people voice their concerns should any be present.

One of the spokespeople at the council states that Fingal County Council is presently taking the market soundings associated with the provision for services linked to shared e-mobility. This includes both escooters and electric bicycles.

The operations for shared services, including the specific permit or licensing requirements, must adhere to Government legislation, which is planned to be bought before the Oireachtas.

In the previous year, Ryan stated that regulations to permit escooters were planned to be passed by the end of the year, but those plans were delayed. The Department of Transport stated the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill should be presented to the Dáil shortly.

The goal involves introducing this amendment at Committee Stage, that would permit a regulation to use escooters, it stated in its last statement.

Escooter legislation is only one of the facets of this bill, that addresses various issues. It also contains provisions that will introduce variable speed limits when driving on the M50 which may result in some delay and debate.

Fingal County Council is not alone in the preparations for the final legalisation of ebikes or escooters. For example, Dublin start-up Bleeper managed to raise €600,000 earlier in the month and has said it is in the process of preparing for fleets of escooters that will join its current bike-sharing services, as soon as the legislation permits for it.

Zipp Mobility is an Irish escooter start-up that has also mentioned in the previous week that it has similar plans for launching in Ireland, while escooter European start-ups like Voi are also interested in expansion within the Irish market.