Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While I acknowledge the contribution from the witnesses, I have enormous reservations, unlike the two previous speakers, because the experience of people in rural areas, especially in the farming sector, in respect of EU regulations is often not a happy one. I note from the submissions made by people who responded to the committee's initial soundings that there is concern as to how the regulation would be implemented in respect of agricultural vehicles. It is important to note that in general the farming sector does not go out of its way to have an unsafe lifestyle because it is in its interest to be safe. If farmers cannot get up in the morning and feed the cattle or milk the cows they are at a disadvantage. Therefore, it is not in their interest to work in an unsafe environment or to behave in an unsafe way. It is in their interest to behave as safely as they can and, in general, they do. The experiences they have recounted to us in recent weeks concerning car testing regulations were not positive. I am not sure whether it is still the case that a car will fail the NCT if it does not have the name of the county displayed in Irish on the number plate. I cannot say whether that has anything to do with safety issues. How a car could possibly fail a national car test by virtue of the fact that "Luimneach" was not on the number plate is difficult to comprehend. That is where people are coming from. As Deputy Noel Harrington said, there is a temptation, especially in Ireland, to overemphasise something that is, at the end of the day, in everybody's interest. The experience of the farming organisations is that there is a temptation in Ireland to go to the nth degree in imposing a regulation, whereas in some of our Mediterranean sister countries they take a more laid-back approach, as we have seen in the financial sphere as much as in the regulation sphere. I am glad to hear the regulation is a long way down the road but I urge the State to seek an exemption for agricultural vehicles because the farming community has already been bamboozled with EU regulations. In fairness, the last thing they need is to be labelled as behaving in an unsafe manner when we know, as people who are out in the community every day, that it is in their interests, as they will admit, to behave in as safe a way as possible.