asked the Minister for Justice if he is aware that many prosecutions have recently been instituted against owners of tractors in West Cork for not having bands on their wheels when travelling on the public roads; and if he will issue an instruction that where such tractors are incidentally used for pulling threshing machines from one haggard to another or for taking a plough from one part of tillage to another, for a short distance on the public road, he will advise that no prosecution should be instituted.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Prosecutions in West Cork.
I am aware that a number of prosecutions have been instituted. Regulations 29 and 34 of the Mechanically Propelled Vehicles (Construction, Equipment and Use) Order, 1934, which was made by the Minister for Local Government and Public Health under the Road Traffic Act, 1933, prescribe the types of tyres which must be used on tractors when they are being driven on public roads. These regulations allow certain exemptions in favour of land tractors. It would not be proper for me to give instructions of the type suggested by the Deputy.
I did not ask the Minister to have the law defined in any way but I would ask the Minister, having regard to the conditions under which some of these poor people work, to have certain exemptions allowed. I would not say exemptions, but a nod is as good as a wink to a tractor-owner as it is to a horse, in certain circumstances. The general tendency is to have tractors fitted with pneumatic tyres and all new tractors going on the land have those tyres but there are some old tractors, bought by some of the poorer farmers, and all I would ask the Minister is that, while no positive instructions should be given to the Guards, a little leniency might be exercised. I would ask him to do that.
The Minister will remember that a tractor is like a blind horse.