Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)

I also welcome our friends from Slovenia to the House.

I want to raise the issue of the recent coverage of the RSA and its consideration of introducing tractor driving tests and training for those aged 16 and over. As of now, a 16-year-old can just apply for a provisional licence and, without any training, step up on one of the monstrosities of tractors that we see on our back roads now. What I really cannot believe, since this announcement was made, is that there has been some opposition to it. In fact, there has been a lot of opposition to the idea. Between 2020 and 2024, there were 28 vehicle-related fatalities on Irish farms, 12 of them linked directly to tractors. The argument has been made that two thirds of these fatalities were of people who were over 55. As someone who is over 55, I know that it is the initial training that one gets or the habits one forms when one drives for the first time that will stay with one for life. It is the muscle memory and the habitual driving that one will be doing half a century after learning how to drive that counts. People will say that the father, the mother, the farmer next door or the contractor who is depending on these young people to work for the summer will train them but they are not professional trainers and they can train them with bad habits. When I learned how to drive, it was in an old Massey Ferguson 135, which would fit into the toolbox of some of the tractors that are out there today and that young people are stepping straight up onto. They are 150 or 200 horsepower with trailers behind them and can weigh 30 or 40 tonnes in total, when laden.

It is a no-brainer that this has to happen but we have to get it right. We need to invite the Minister in to discuss getting it right and thinking outside the box. The RSA is starting with a blank page on this. It knows its faults and failings with the car driver test and the waiting lists, so it must get this right. Youngsters should be allowed to do the training from aged 15 and a half, six months before they are 16. If they have the training done, they will still be able to start driving at 16. In that way, nobody is losing out on labour for the summer and the youngsters are not losing out on the chance of a summer job and a few bob. Let them have the training done by the time they are 16. They should not lose a year by being told that they have to do training that they cannot start until they are 16. By the time they have the training done, they will have lost a year. A little bit of thinking outside the box is needed so that we can get this one right, but it has to be done. It is a no-brainer. We have to train these kids to drive these tractors properly.