GAA club bans e-scooters and e-bikes from grounds

Louise Walsh

A GAA club has decided "unanimously" to ban e-scooters and electric bikes from its grounds in an effort to keep its juvenile members in a safe environment.

The executive committee of Erin's Isle GAA Club in Dublin's Finglas decided on Saturday to introduce the ban on e-scooters and electric bikes with "immediate effect," adding that children with such vehicles seen on the premises will be asked to leave.

The club's juvenile chairman Paul Varszegi said the decision was taken to try to keep young people in the community safe.

There have been a number of near misses in the club grounds during the winter months and the community has been hit hard by the death of Grace Lynch, who died after being hit by a scrambler bike in the area in January.

Many of Grace's friends are members of the club.

"I'd say about 80 per cent of kids around here have an e-scooter or electric bike," Varszegi said.

"Most of them are predominately male, aged between 13 and 16 years old and have been coming here to training on them.

"Many of them are travelling at speeds of up to 50km/h and I've yet to see any of them wearing a helmet.

"We have all seen the reports from doctors in recent days of the amount of children in hospital with head injuries and we just want to reduce the risks to our juveniles so when I proposed the ban to the executive, they all agreed immediately."

The club, which covers all areas of Finglas and its hinterland, has 2,000 members, 900 of whom are juveniles among 22 teams.

Varszegi said they just want to get the kids back on bikes or walking to the club with a hurl or a football in hand.

"We have bike stations for bikes and the majority of our members are within walking distance from the club.

"At Christmas, there were incidents here of lads all dressed in black, on e-scooters, driving behind and in front of cars and parents couldn't see them in the dark. These young lads just want the thrill but I don't think they understand the dangers."

Varszegi said the club will police the ban themselves and anyone seen on the motorised vehicles will be asked to leave.

"Since Saturday, we haven't seen one e-scooter come in here and we have had no push-backs or complaints from parents or the kids themselves."

He added that he hoped the ban would also stop non-members from coming in and doing wheelies and causing damage to pitches an adjacent running track.

"I was coming home from Skerries on Sunday and I saw two people on an e-scooter narrowly miss causing a crash beause of the way they were driving on the road.

"We can't police the roads but we can police our grounds. This club is a close-knit family and we will do all it takes to keep as many kids off the streets and safe as we can and we would encourage all parents to think twice before buying their children an e-bike or scooter."

Paul added that the club is now recruiting for more juvenile members and anyone needing further information can contact Erin's Isle through its social media pages.