Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Reilly for sharing time to allow me to comment on this important issue. I was part of a delegation from the transport committee which went to Australia in 2004 in advance of the establishment of the Road Safety Authority. Australia was the world leader on road safety at the time, and probably still is, and we brought back the information we gathered there and presented it to the committee. What was done in Australia was put into law here, with great results, as Senator Paul Daly noted. Fatalities on the roads have reduced from 348 in the year the RSA was set up to some 150 per year now.

I welcome the Senator's Bill and am delighted the Government is not opposing it. An issue I wish to bring attention to relates to a particular change in farming practices in the past 20 years. When I was a youngster growing up on a farm, although there was less machinery available to us, younger people were more familiar with the handling of machinery and livestock than they are today. It seems to be the norm now on many family farms that the young people, first of all, are not interested in most of the work involved in running a farm and, second, are not asked to do it by their parents. This is an issue that should be examined because, as colleagues noted, young people are at risk where the family farm is also their playground. They should be au faitwith how machines operate, how silage is cut, how cattle are herded, handled and so on. Senator Paul Daly is probably right that there needs to be a separate agency to oversee and direct these matters. It is different from road safety because there are so many different aspects to farming, including silage making, slurry disposal, working with animals, spraying crops, operating heavy machinery and managing traffic in yards where people are under pressure of work and changing weather conditions. There are dangers and risks where family members are not knowledgeable about how things work on a farm. This is an area that might be considered for inclusion in the Bill.