The Irish Road Haulage Association has rejected suggestions that it called for a ban on tractors on national roads and criticised Macra Na Feirme for not taking a stronger stand on road safety.
The association insisted its call was for the Government to "stamp out the use of farm-type vehicles for commercial purposes on public highways".
According to its spokesman Mr Jimmy Quinn, transporting "excessive loads" over long distances "by vehicles constructed for off-road use has already resulted in the tragic loss of life on a number of occasions". He said the inability of these vehicles to cope with the tonnage they towed was a factor.
"The use of large modern tractors in particular, which can achieve high speeds, make them a danger to other road-users when hauling these excessive weights as they are not designed for road use and are not required to comply with standard road safety certification procedures such as the NCT."
He said the haulage association was not calling for a wholesale ban on tractors on public roads but a curb on the use of these vehicles for commercial use and their restriction to the agricultural and off-road purposes for which they were specifically designed.
Macra Na Feirme had criticised hauliers for their comments, pointing out that many farm gates opened on to national roads and arguing that the hauliers were suggesting it was not concerned with road safety.
