E-scooters: New minimum age, helmet, and hi-vis rules signed off by Government

Transport minister Darragh O’Brien said plans to to introduce insurance, driver’s licences, and learner’s permits for e-scooters were still being worked on

Cabinet also received an update from HSE Public Health, with health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill saying preliminary data showed there were 1,973 e-scooter-related emergency department presentations between 2021 and 2025, with under-16s accounting for 64%.

The Government has conceded it still must decide how insurance, driver’s licences, and learner’s permits will be introduced for e-scooters, despite announcing the plans.

At the final Cabinet meeting before the summer break, Government signed off on proposals from transport ministers Darragh O’Brien and Sean Canney to clamp down on e-scooters.

This includes increasing the minimum age for e-scooter users from 16 to 18, making helmets and high-visibility clothing mandatory, increasing fixed charge notice penalties for all e-scooter offences to €100, and doubling fees for the release of detained e-scooters to €80 for the first day and €30 for each subsequent day.

These regulations will be signed into law by late August.

The Government also agreed the Department of Transport would further engage with the Department of Justice, An Garda Síochána, and relevant stakeholders in the coming months to explore vehicle registration, mandatory insurance and the requirement to hold a valid driving licence or learner’s permit.

Registration will also apply to e-scooters bought before the changes were introduced.

However, when asked what kind of insurance would be required, if insurance companies had agreed to provide cover, and whether tests to obtain licences for e-scooters would be introduced, Mr O’Brien conceded the details of these plans were still being worked on.

“The first thing is to deal with what we can do now and in the month of August, which is in relation to increasing the age for their usage and ensuring a mandatory use of helmets, which is critically important, and indeed high vis,” he said.

“In relation to registration and the definition and the categorisation of e-scooters, that's work that we'll do over the summer in advance of September. Minister Canney has already mentioned that the amendment we intend to bring in at committee stage in the national driver testing file, and we'll do that through primary legislation.

But the first focus is now to deal with the regulations to provide absolute clarity as to who can use them.

When it was put to Mr O’Brien he was announcing plans without any plans on how they would work, he denied this, arguing the Government was repeating what it did with scrambler legislation and “providing absolute clarity” on who is permitted to use them, before introducing stricter laws.

Cabinet also received an update from HSE Public Health, with health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill saying preliminary data showed there were 1,973 e-scooter-related emergency department presentations between 2021 and 2025, with under-16s accounting for 64%.

The most serious cases involved severe head injuries, including nine paediatric ICU admissions, with none recorded as wearing a helmet.

The report also highlights the broader impact on pedestrians, who accounted for 14% of Children's Health Ireland (CHI) presentations.

Emerging adult data shows a similar pattern, with e-scooter-related neurosurgical admissions at Beaumont Hospital rising from 17 cases in 2024 to 44 in 2025.

The ministers also confirmed the owners of an e-scooter would be fined if someone under-18 was caught using their e-scooter, regardless of whether they are the child’s parent.

Both Mr O’Brien and Mr Canney denied there were issues for gardaí enforcing the laws, with more than 1,4000 e-scooters and 96 scramblers seized in the first half of 2026.

Elsewhere, there will be reforms at the Road Safety Authority (RSA), including the introduction of a 'road safety ambassadors programme.