There was an almost unanimous view that the HSA needs to rethink the proposal to make it an offence to have a child under seven years of age in a tractor cab, at the meeting of Farm Contractors Ireland (FCI) in Athenry, Co Galway, this week. The meeting called for clarification on the issue of whether children can sit in tractor cabs fitted with a proper second seat and a seatbelt – as is in many modern tractor cabs.

FCI national chairman, John Sheehy, said that small children on farms are safer when sitting in a proper tractor, in a second seat with a seatbelt, than wandering around the farmyard out of view of the tractor driver or a visiting contractor. While he urged contractors not to have children in their tractor cabs, he said that mandatory prosecution was a step too far.