In East Wall, a renewed push for a creative way to deal with dangerous scramblers

In 2010, “there was a group of lads up on this wasteland here”, says Brian Harte, gesturing towards a mud racing track, with small steep hills, on the Alfie Byrne Road.

The Clontarf estuary opens out in the distance.

“Lads in motorbikes ripping up and down, ripping up the football pitches, police chasing them, helicopters, everything,” he says, standing on a raised viewing platform where today people stand to watch motocross races.

That same year, Dublin City Motocross Club piloted an education programme, said Harte, one of the club’s founders.

The six-week course for young people who weren’t in education covered mechanics, first aid, personal development.  “The carrot at the end of the course was that they got a go on the bikes.”

Harte wants to develop that programme more, as soon as possible, he said. The idea is to educate young people about the sport, deter the illegal use of scramblers and provide routes into further courses and apprenticeships, he says.

At area meetings and local community safety forums, Dublin city councillors and residents regularly raise concerns about people on scramblers speeding dangerously down roads or ripping up sports pitches.

Social Democrats Councillor Daniel Ennis says he knows people who have died on bikes and he wants the council and the Gardaí to work together creatively to explore potential solutions – like Harte’s in East Wall.

“We have a massive scrambler scourge in the area and no way of tackling it,” he says. Young people are using scramblers while openly drug dealing too, he says.

“It’s the most effective diversion programme aimed at the most at-risk young people,” he says. He is keen to help the club to work out how to fund a full-time programme.

A Garda spokesperson said the force has upped its seizures of scramblers, quads and e-bikes this year and remains committed to arresting people using them illegally.

Changing laws

In June 2023, the government amended the Road Traffic Act to give Gardaí greater powers to seize vehicles that are being driven, or are likely to be driven, dangerously.

A spokesperson for An Garda Síochana says that Gardaí in the Dublin Metropolitan Region have seized significantly more quads, scramblers and e-bikes, since that change.

They seized 197 electric vehicles between January to June 2024, he said. Up from 115 in 2023 and 89 in 2022.

“These figures represent and support a practical and active regional policing approach that is robust and proactive to the issue,” says the spokesperson.

Gardaí may be reluctant to chase young people on scramblers though – given safety concerns, especially if those being pursued are not wearing helmets.

Deciding whether to pursue offending vehicles involves “careful consideration of various factors, such as environmental conditions, the nature of the offence, and risks to public safety including Gardaí”, said the Garda spokesperson.

“Despite concerns about the reluctance of Gardaí to chase offenders due to potential prosecutions following chases, the DMR [Dublin Metropolitan Region] emphasizes their commitment to arresting individuals using scramblers illegally,” says the Garda spokesperson.

Between 2019 and 2023, there were 42 killed and seriously injured road users injured in collisions involving a scrambler, said a spokesperson for the Road Safety Authority.

On 9 May, in Blanchardstown, a man in his 20s died following a crash involving a scrambler bike.

Despite Garda seizures, Ennis, the Social Democrats councillor, says the problem of illegal scramblers is worsening in the inner-city. Residents continually raise the issue, he says, because it makes the area feel unsafe

Some young people are dealing drugs, while illegally driving about on the scramblers too, he says.

He fears that the new segments of the Royal Canal Greenway from Phibsborough to the quays will become an unofficial scrambler track, he says.

“It’s a gorgeous amenity, I love it, I’ll walk it no doubt with my kids, but I don’t want to be walking by lads on scramblers,” says Ennis.

He wouldn’t consider it safe for his partner to walk that route with the children if he wasn’t there, he says.

Beyond a pilot

Harte has a background in competing in Motocross.

In 2010, aware of the issues with illegal scramblers in the area,  he and another guy from East Wall began to approach young people to see if they were interested in learning to use the bikes properly.

“We got talking to them, they listened to us, so we set up a motocross track here,” says Harte. The track opened in 2010.

The sport can be hard to access, says Harte. Most clubs don’t rent bikes so you need your own, he says. “If you want to get into motocross in Ireland there is nowhere to go.”

Meanwhile, young people in Dublin race around on bikes illegally in public places, causing danger and disturbance, he says.

“No helmets, no safety gear, bikes that have bits falling off them,” says Harte.

As he talks, scrambler whirrs. In the Alfie Byrne soccer pitch next to the track a child, who looks about 10 years old, is driving a motorised bike unsupervised.

Soon after they built the track, they ran a pilot scheme with the Life Centre on Pearse Street, aimed at young people not in education. The six-week course touched on mechanics, first aid, drugs awareness and fitness.

It was a huge success, says Harte. The young people did their homework and stuck to clear rules, he says. “In the end, they get a go on the bikes and they were absolutely over the moon.”

Some who had rarely left the inner-city took up racing and started to travel to races all around Ireland with the club, says Harte. Others took to fitness after being introduced to the gym, he says, and some went onto apprenticeships.

Parents and youth workers told him they were surprised at how well the young people participated in the programme.

“They couldn’t believe the attention span we grasped from those kids in the six weeks,” says Harte. “The bikes are a tool, it grabs their attention, and it’s cool.”

But despite the success of the pilot, Harte hasn’t yet been able to get public funding to roll out the full ongoing programme, he says.

Ennis says he wants to work with Harte and the club to develop a formal proposal and push for funding as soon as possible.

“It sounds incredible,” he says. “If done right and given the backing, it could be a real deterrent to what we are seeing with the bikes.”

Still hoping

A lull during Covid-19 and an issue with insurance – one that affected all motocross clubs in Ireland – have been resolved now, says Harte.

Many races didn’t go ahead in 2023 due to issues with insurance. Harte says the sports governing body Motorcycling Ireland has now succeeded in getting insurance cover.

So, Harte wants to expand his past approach, provide in-reach to local schools, and to develop a certificated course that other communities in Ireland could then replicate.

“I want to set this up as a centre of excellence,” he says. “We would be inundated.”

The course would cover new laws governing motorised vehicles on the roads and could create pathways into apprenticeships and other courses, says Harte. “It’s a gateway to getting kids to interact.”

The club has an emphasis on safety and education, he says.

Some young people decide that they don’t want to race bikes but could go on to become mechanics or pursue other careers, says Harte.

“Would you believe that most of the lads that get on a motocross bike don’t even want to be on the bikes?” says Harte.

Some of the young people are looking for an activity and something to get involved in, he says.

But once they receive the training and get an opportunity to use the bikes legally, some decide to go other routes rather than into racing bikes, he says.

Ennis, the Social Democrats councillor, says he wants to push the council to take action to tackle the ongoing problem of scramblers. “We have to start looking for solutions.”