9. Deputy John Curran asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the progress he has made with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Garda Commissioner and the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners in identifying more effective possible solutions which can assist in dealing with the use of scrambler and quad bikes; the responsibilities he has assigned to each agency; the timeframe in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44080/17]

Deputy Jack Chambers: Deputy John Curran cannot be here and sends his apologies. He has asked the Minister for Justice and Equality to outline the progress he has made with the Ministers for Transport, Tourism and Sport; Housing, Planning and Local Government; the Garda Commissioner and the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners in establishing a multi-agency approach in order to ascertain if there are additional legislative or other solutions which could assist in dealing with use of scrambler and quad bikes more comprehensively.

Deputy Charles Flanagan: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am very concerned about the very serious public safety and anti-social issues associated with the misuse of scramblers and quad bikes. Tackling these issues, as the Deputy said, requires a multi-agency approach. To better facilitate this, I have written to the relevant parties, including the Ministers for Transport, Tourism and Sport and Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, as well as the Garda Commissioner and the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, in order to ascertain whether there are additional legislative or other solutions which could assist us in dealing with this issue in a more comprehensive way. More recently, I have also written to the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, given that the National Parks and Wildlife Service falls within its remit. Responses have now been received from the majority of bodies. As a next step, when all responses have been received, I intend to convene a meeting of all interested parties in order to identify more effective possible solutions and assign responsibility and timeframes for them……

[For full debate, click on this link]