Changes to Car-Trailer Licence Will Damage Rural Employment – McGrath
Independent TD Mattie McGrath has questioned the decision to compel farmers and other small business operators into reapplying for an additional category to be placed on their car or jeep licences. Deputy McGrath was speaking after it emerged that the new provisions will mean farmers who have been pulling trailers for the last number of decades on a Category B licence will now have to undergo further driving tests to assess their suitability to drive with a trailer:
“On the face of it this rule is just one more way of drumming up business for a discredited National Driver Licence Service (NDLS).
Farmers and other business owners have been driving with trailers of varying weight safely and responsibly for decades now.
Forcing someone with 20-30 years’ experience to apply for a learner Permit in category BE in an NDLS centre and undergo another driving test in the car/jeep and trailer is just nonsensical.
It will prove to be just one more administrative and financial burden that farmers and small business operators will have to contend with.
I will be appealing to the Minister for Transport to reassess the validity of this measure and asking him to at the very least introduce a form of amnesty for those farmers and business operators who have working and driving safely under the previous categories,” concluded Deputy McGrath.
