asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will consider making it compulsory for all tractors being used in agriculture to be fitted with safety canopies or shields.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Safety Equipment for Tractors.
33.
The general question of safety requirements for farm equipment, including tractors, has been receiving attention by my Department but, pending fuller examination of the question, I am not in a position to indicate what action may be considered desirable on particular matters.
In view of the fact that many people have been killed or seriously injured within this year on tractors not fitted with these devices, and further in view of the fact that in the countries where the devices have been fitted the number of people killed or injured has dropped almost completely, would the Minister treat this as a matter of urgency?
I am very well aware of this situation, not from my time in the Department of Agriculture but from an earlier time, and the Deputy can rest assured that anything I can do to bring an end to or a diminution in the number of fatalities as a result of accidents through the misuse or improper use of farm machinery, even off the public road, I shall certainly do.
Is the Minister aware that these accidents can occur not through the misuse of agricultural machinery but by reason of the fact that, working on uneven surfaces, the machinery can turn over even when it is driven by the most competent persons. I am aware the Minister is very interested in this, but will he agree that it has been allowed to go on far too long without the inquiry which he says is now taking place being put in train, and will he treat the matter with extreme urgency?
I have said that. I cannot say it any more clearly.
Saying it and leaving it there seems to be one of the things——
That is usually not one of the things I do.
I got the same answer a year-and-a-half ago.