A Leitrim councillor has spoken out after a new report from the College of Physicians has found that e-scooters are the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries to children at Temple Street Hospital.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland the author of the report, Dr Irwin Gill, said: "E-scooters are now the leading cause of traumatic brain injury in children admitted to the National Neurosurgical Centre at Temple Street prior to May 2024, which is at the point when legislation came into effect".
"We had seen one child admitted with a traumatic brain injury, and in the 18 months since, we've seen 25 and counting, coming in with serious, serious injuries."
Cllr Brendan Barry said that he would be "very concerned about the amount of children that ended up in Temple Street with serious brain injuries. There have been up to 25 children in the last 18 months and they have life-long effects on those children which is very serious. There seems to be a lot of children with all kinds of injuries ending up in hospitals right across the country due to e-scooters."
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He noted that children under the age of 16 are not permitted to operate e-scooters and the scooters legally limited to a maximum speed of 20 km/h in Ireland as of May 2024. "However, I'm told that many e-scooters are able to go much faster than that which is very dangerous if people aren't wearing helmets and safety gear. Another issue I have raised in the past is people using e-scooters and bicycles on footpaths and crashing into people exiting shops or houses. That is very dangerous as they can weigh up to 20kg and cause serous injuries to pedestrians. I would appeal to people using them, to dismount and walk on the footpaths. More needs to be done to make parents and users aware of the dangers of e-scooters."
Dr Gill continued: "We're on track for approximately 400 attendances across CHI emergency departments this year. That's more than one every day and that includes broken bones of other sorts, lacerations and other serious injuries."
He added that the brain injuries suffered by the children were leading to longer-term side effects.
"We're starting to see children come back to clinic where their parents and teachers are saying they’re really struggling to stay awake through school, or having desperate headaches later in the day or getting angry and snapping at things that they wouldn't have done before," he said.
"What we're calling for is for parents to be aware that it is illegal for children under 16 to use any scooter on a public road," he said.
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"We're calling for enforcement of the existing rules as they are, which seems to be that they exist in principle, but they're not keeping children safe and safe in practice."
