§ MR. BOULTON (Huntingdonshire, Ramsey)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will take the necessary steps to stop the prosecution of cyclists in Ireland for walking with bicycles at night without a light, and confine such prosecutions to cases where cyclists are riding machines without lights, as is the case in England.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) There is a slight difference between the terms of the statutes regulating the carrying of lamps at night upon bicyles in England and Ireland respectively. In Ireland, under the strict construction of the section dealing with the matter, a bicycle which 921 is upon a public road at night requires to be lighted whether it is being ridden or not. It is, however, not the practice of the police to prosecute unless the bicycle is being ridden. Only one case has come to the knowledge of the Inspector-General in which a prosecution was instituted against a person for having an unlighted bicycle upon which he was not riding, and in that case it was decided to withdraw the prosecution.