The looming ban on taking e-scooters onto public transport will not last, Conor Faughnan has predicted. 

From October, no one will be able to take an e-scooter with them onto a bus, tram or train. 

The National Transport Authority made the decision amid concerns about the safety of some of the batteries used in e-scooters. 

In a statement, the NTA described e-scooters as a “relatively new” product in Ireland and there was a lack of “quality control”. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, transport expert Conor Faughnan said he was “not a fan” of the decision. 

“There have been a couple of fires,” he said. 

“There was a fire on a train in Madrid - that was in an uderground station, so potentially dangerous. 

“If badly manufactured lithium batteries get wet, they can get hot extremely quickly and can generate toxic smoke. 

“So, the problem we have to fix here is where are those batteries coming from? 

“You can buy an e-scooter online, Lord knows where it comes from, you hope it adheres to the Chinese regulation that it says it adheres to - but that’s not good enough.”

A person rides an e-scooter in Dublin. Image: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

In the long-term, Mr Faughnan said the only solution is to increase the quality of e-scooters but he predicted this would happen eventually.

“We have to get to a situation where - like with cars - any scooter for road use complies with European-type approval regulations,” he said. 

“Certainly, a compliant e-scooter absolutely belongs on public transport and I think the public transport operators have to get their head around that. 

“It will be normal for somebody to have a little e-scooter that they can carry in their hand, step onto the Luas and use it for the last mile of their journey but they have to be ones that are properly manufactured and don’t have dodgy batteries.” 

The NTA has said the ban will be subjected to a review at some point in the future.

Main image: A man with an e-scooter at a bus stop. Picture by: Alamy.com