John Joe O'Connell
speaker
195 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 24 Aug
John Joe O'Connell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
I suppose I have a call from members across the country who in their attempts
to stop e-scooters are finding themselves having prosecutions initiated against them under the Road Traffic Act.
How does that happen?
Well, sure.
It happens that the authorities that be in our inn on Garda Síochána, who are, I suppose, the decision makers in the organisation that we work in, have some decision makers there have decided that you, Garda, John Joe Connell and Dave McCullough, the patrol car, go to intervene an e-scooter.
An e-scooter takes action, whether it's John Joe or Dave is driving the patrol car, has to evade the e-scooter.
because it's targeted at the patrol car and due to maybe, you know, mounting a curb or hitting a bollard or contacting with a wall to try and avoid injury to anybody.
Now that member driving the patrol car finds themselves prosecuted.
Well, Dave, now, in fairness, I don't know, I think back around March or April this year, I heard, I think it was Micheál Martin, our good Taoiseach, said common sense will be used in relation to stopping these e-scooters, criminals using these e-scooters.
Now, we've gone beyond what common sense is now because our members are trying their best and they're finding themselves injured and prosecuted.
So we're at a bit of a, the rubber's going to hit the road now at some stage, excuse the pun.
Yeah, well, like even the regulations around e-scooters are they have to be of a certain weight, 25 kg max, to a max speed of 20 kilometres per hour.
And you have to be 16 years or over.
Helmets and high-vis jackets are only recommended.
They're not legislatively provided for.
But you know those, like you look at them and I see them and everyone who's listened to this show sees e-scooters and they're traveling 40, 50, 55, 60 kilometers an hour.
Crazy stuff with passengers, with passengers on them.
And all these have to be regulated with, they have to have manufacturer plates, which gives a design and all that.
And the retailers, look, I don't know, like you go into any retailers that sell these and there's an A4 sign that says not to be used on public road.
So-
Showing 101–120 of 195 · page 6 of 10
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