asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that a considerable number of prosecutions of tractor owners for trifling offences under the Road Transport Acts are pending; and whether in the circumstances he will give consideration to the question of taking such steps as are necessary to enable owners of tractors carrying an £8 tax to be free to utilise their machines to haul for reward manure, fire blocks, straw, hay, turnips and other products or farm necessities for neighbours where no suitable public transport is available.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Prosecutions of Tractor Owners.
10.
Provision was made in the Transport Act, 1958, and the Finance Act, 1958, enabling farmers, in clearly defined circumstances, to carry for reward by tractor and trailer live stock belonging to their neighbours, between farm and livestock auction mart or fair, without being the holders of merchandise licences and without disqualifying themselves from the benefit of the £8 road tax. When this provision was debated in the House, I was urged to extend it in various ways and I would refer the Deputy to the Debates of 3rd and 4th June, 1958 (Ref. Volume 168, Nos. 8 and 9, columns 1156, 1157, 1180 and 1184). I made it clear that I had agreed to the concession to meet a specific case made to me by the National Farmers' Association; that I had accepted it with hesitation knowing it was likely to lead to requests for further extensions; and that I was not prepared to go one step further in the matter. So far as I am concerned, that is still the position.