Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that is the case now but the premature change announced on the website caused a lot of difficulties for many people, particularly those for employers whose employees use W category licences for the work they carry out. The driver licence directive which we expect to come into operation in September will mean that changes will have to be made. What I want to know is whether the Government has considered what those changes will be and what impact they will have. The tractors that many of us grew up with include the 35 and the 165 models used on farms but the tractors being used today are much larger and much more powerful and are often used to pull very heavy loads. The licensing of 16 year olds to carry out work on them is probably something that needs to be examined from a safety perspective because there have been a lot of accidents involving some of these very heavy, powerful vehicles. We must get our domestic regulations right and the Government must consider that in advance of the publication of the EU directive.

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