Minister Coveney has entered the debate surrounding young people driving tractors on Irish farms.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the National Economic Dialogue in Dublin Castle this week, Coveney questioned whether it was "appropriate for a 15-year-old to be driving a tractor towing 30 tonnes of grain from the field into the farmyard."

The legal age limit for driving a tractor on Irish roads is 16 years, while the legal age limit for driving on the farm is 14 years.

Referring to the widespread incidences of young people operating tractors, the Minister said he had done it himself at 15 years of age, but asked whether that was appropriate any more in light of the high number of farm deaths last year.

"Is that appropriate any more or do we have to insist on and provide professional training before that's allowed?"

Hard questions

Currently, the Health and Safety Authority's (HSA) Code of Practice on Preventing Accidents to Children and Young Persons in Agriculture recommends that a child or young person aged 14 or over "should only be permitted to drive a tractor or mechanically propelled machine on the farm if they have attended a formal training course run by a competent training provider".

However, formal requirements in this area are unclear as people under 16 are generally prohibited from being "employed" in the legal sense and are therefore not covered by legislation on health and safety in the workplace.

Coveney said the farming community needs to ask itself the hard questions in this regard and added that his Department is coming up with some of the answers."There is still a lot more to do," he said.

Last year the majority (60%) of the 30 farm deaths in Ireland were caused by accidents involving moving farm vehicles and machines, and five of those who died were children.

And between 2005 and 2014, the HSA says children accounted for 11% of farm deaths in Ireland, with two thirds of those directly related to tractors and machinery.

Farm safety and the budget

On the issue of farm safety's priority in Budget 2016, Coveney said this is linked more to the budget under the €4 billion Rural Development Programme. The Minister promised more strategies around farm safety would be launched in the autumn.

"What is for sure is that nobody will be getting any money from me under TAMS if they fail to complete a half-day farm safety course," he continued.

"This is too serious an issue to skim over. Almost everything we do now in agricultural policy is linked to farm safety and that is the way it should be."