Child brain injuries up 50% as e-scooter use reaches ‘tipping point’
E-scooter use has reached a “tipping point” in Ireland, the Irish national parliament heard, after figures showed a sharp rise in child brain injuries.
The number of children and young people admitted to hospital with traumatic brain injuries after e-scooter incidents rose by 50 per cent year on year, according to Children’s Health Ireland (CHI).
There were 1,130 attendances at Children’s Health Ireland emergency departments between January 2021 and last August because of e-scooter-related injuries.
Twelve children were admitted to CHI at Temple Street under the neurosurgery team with traumatic brain injuries from e-scooter crashes between June 2024 and May 2025.
There was then a 50 per cent rise in admissions from June 2025 to last May, with 18 children admitted. CHI said at least seven more have been admitted since then.
Dr Irwin Gill, consultant paediatrician in neurodisability at CHI, said: “When we talk about the dangers of e-scooter injuries, the measure of harm cannot be limited to whether a child lives or dies.
“Many of the children we care for spend a long time in hospital accessing surgical care, medical care and rehabilitation, and are left with life-changing brain injuries as a result of their e-scooter crashes that can result in permanent physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities.
Gill said children who sustain these injuries “may require lifelong rehabilitation and ongoing support from their families and the State, and which in some cases can never be fully undone”.
He said preventing these injuries “must be a public health priority”.
The issue was raised repeatedly in the Dáil on Thursday, with Tánaiste Simon Harris telling Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald that the situation was “at a tipping point where we need to move and move quickly”.
Harris is due to meet senior ministers next week to discuss options, including a possible ban on e-scooters.
Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly told Harris that current e-scooter regulations had been a “monumental failure” and said a scheme should be opened encouraging children and parents to trade them in for bikes.
Harris said he had an open mind, but that the current situation is “extraordinarily dangerous and needs to change”.
Garda commissioner Justin Kelly said on Tuesday that he agreed with calls for a ban on e-scooters, saying society would be “better off” without them.
Under legislation that came into effect in May 2024, e-scooter users must be aged 16 or over and obey a speed limit of 20km/h.
Before the law was introduced, CHI said only one child had been admitted to hospital with a brain injury caused by an e-scooter crash. Almost 40 have been admitted since.
CHI said: “This summer, across CHI emergency departments, it is estimated that one to two children with e-scooter-related injuries present each day.”
“This has significantly increased the workload of paediatric emergency medicine teams, both in terms of the volume of patients and the complexity of injuries being treated.”
CHI said injuries sustained by children range from major trauma cases to fractures, head and neck injuries, facial injuries, concussions and lacerations.
Of the 30 children admitted to CHI with traumatic brain injuries related to e-scooter incidents between May 2024 and last month, all had evidence of bleeding within their skull or brain and 97 per cent sustained skull fractures.
Almost all the children, 97 per cent, were not wearing helmets at the time of the incident. Just over half, 53 per cent, required emergency neurosurgery.
