Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Anyone who has children knows that if a person is over in the shed, children, at four or five years of age, can come along the road and sneak away. There is no point in saying they cannot. It will create more accidents if children are not allowed to be on the tractor. A person might be in a shed believing the child is not coming over, but the child will sneak over. When writing to Santy at two or three years of age, the first thing a child on a farm wants is a tractor. They will sneak over and back the road. If the person brought the child with them and put the child in the tractor, at least they would know where the child was. The authority needs to rethink this.

In tractors nowadays, there are seats and seat belts. Given the suspension in tractors nowadays, they are easier to travel in than cars. The authority needs to look at this again. I fear the road the authority is going down will cause more accidents. Children will sneak up on tractors. There is no point in saying they will not. They are youngsters. It is like a hurler in Kilkenny who has a hurley in the hand at four years of age to be good at it. The authority needs to re-examine this.