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 Tipperary Farm Contractors Meeting Tipperary Farming Contractors have expressed grave concerns regarding new regulations governing the use of agricultural and works vehicles on public roads and feel that these new laws will seriously effect their future incomes.
Details of the Department of Transport and Road Safety Authority‘s new proposals are due to be announced later this week. Contractors understandably now express concerns that these new measures will exclude them from non-agricultural work contracts.
It is understood that a speed limit of just 40kph will be also be introduced for tractors on public roads, with the minimum age for tractor drivers to be increased, while permits will to be introduced for contractors who use farm vehicles that run on rebated fuel for non-agricultural work.
Tom Murphy, director of the Professional Agricultural Contractors (PAC) of Ireland claims:
“The proposed legislation will do serious damage to contractor incomes and the cost of permits, which would allow agricultural contractors to use farm machinery on non-agricultural jobs, such as construction, is likely to be prohibitive. Contractors will go to the wall because of this. There are very few contractors who survive exclusively on farm work. New speed limit will effectively ban tractors from motorways, while the cost of new permits could exclude many contractors from tendering for work with local councils.The proposals, as they are currently framed, deemed the transport of harvested willow as haulage rather than an element of the contractor’s core business. Consequently, contractors will need permits to run their vehicles on rebated fuel if they get involved in this activity.”
The PAC will hold a meeting this week on Thursday at 8pm in the Horse and Jockey, Thurles, Co Tipperary to advise contractors on these new proposed measures.
Farm contractors incomes have already been hit this past year, with the repossession and resale of farm and plant machinery by finance companies, having had serious consequences for established and registered agricultural contractors, with cheap tractors and machinery, bought at repossession sales, enabling new entrants to undercut established operators. Claims that new silage outfits have started up, as a result, which are not registered for tax and who are operating, charging significantly less as a consequence, would appear to be well founded.
 Gardaí are seeking help to identify three men who died in a car crash near Cashel, Co Tipperary, last night.
The accident happened on the Dublin side of the Old Cashel Road at Deansgrange shortly before 11pm last night, less than 2km from the centre of Cashel and just before the M8 motorway.
The victims had been the occupants of a car that was in collision with a lorry. Gardaí say it appears to have been a head-on collision, and are describing the accident as one of the worst seen in the area for some time.
The lorry driver has been taken to South Tipperary General Hospital, but it is believed his condition is not life-threatening, and it is hoped he may be able to shed light on how the crash occurred.
Any persons who may have witnessed this collision are asked to contact the Gardai at Cashel 062-75840, the Garda Confidential Line 1800-600111, or 062 – 75840 or any Garda Station.
The N8 remains closed for a technical examination of the scene and diversions are in place.
 The dispute on the M7 Castletown/Nenagh stretch has been resolved. This clears the way for the opening of the final section next Wednesday.
Local Fine Gael TD Deputy Noel Coonan welcomed the news stating: “The blockade by contractors has been lifted, sub-contractors have been part-paid and as a result plans are in now in train for the section to finally opened next week, weather of course permitting. The dispute over the final section of the M7 has been settled and thankfully the roadway will open ahead of the New Year. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been lobbying the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, Fred Barry CEO of the NRA and Peter Carey County Manager of Laois County Council to intervene and work together to resolve threats which was preventing the stretch opening. I welcome the resolution of the dispute which has cleared the way for the planned opening of the roadway next Wednesday and hopefully present weather conditions will not intervene.”
This Design and Build scheme is high quality dual carriageway approximately 36 km in length. The existing N7 carriageway will remain in place to serve local road needs. The scheme started at the most easterly junction of the Nenagh bypass and finished at the Borris-in-Ossory interchange which will be constructed as part of the M7/M8 Scheme.
This project has been funded by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan and Transport 21 and by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund.
We the Irish State has spent €40m planning and designing an underground railway line that may never be built, recent figures reveal. Iarnród Éireann admit spending millions of euros on the second Dublin DART underground project, proposed to run from Docklands to Inchicore, even though 7.5 km of the 7.6 km line does not yet have planning permission. New figures show that €20million will have been spent this year alone planning this line.
 Killaloe bridge, North Tipperary One other high-profile rail project for our glorious capital, expected to cost €3 billion, the much hailed Metro North has already incurred costs of €135 million.
If both projects are shelved, because of huge cuts in public spending, it follows that hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ euro’s will have been flushed into the river Liffey. Read the Department of Transport Website here
Meanwhile, back in rural forgotten Tipperary, the much patched road to Two Mile Borris has begun to unravel again and when our present weather conditions subside sufficiently, we can look forward to enjoying a surface similar to a gravelled driveway.
In another scenario, a meeting of County Councillors from Clare and North Tipperary were told by Clare County Council Officials recently that they have earmarked €18,000 for repairs to half the bridge at Killaloe. But there are no plans to carry out similar repairs on the Tipperary half of the bridge, due to lack of funds.
The ten year wait for a ring road for Thurles obviously was not part of the “Lowry Secret Support Deal” for government either and we dare to ask the question here in North Tipp, was there ever any deal in the first place, as certainly we here presently resident in ‘no mans land‘ have not seen any benefits, financially or otherwise, over the past two years.
Now with North Tipperary Fianna Fáil TD Máire Hoctor revealing this week that she was very disillusioned by the performance of Taoiseach Brian Cowen and would be prepared to vote for her fellow Tipperary native, Mary Hanafin to take over as leader of the party, we can expect no ‘manna from heaven‘, or even a bit of tarmac, for that matter, from this quarter either. She, herself, admits that Brian Cowan even forgot she existed, failing to inform her of the visit by the Minister for Trade Enterprise and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe, to Thurles last July, to open a €3.5m business park in the town, thus afforded Mr Lowry the opportunity to pretend he delivered that project for North Tipperary on his own.
Thurles Chamber of Commerce seem to have emigrated and Thurles Urban District Councillors have not been heard from, since August, when dog poo, boy racers and attempts to meet with the IMF were high on their agenda. As for North Tipp County Council, well who knows where they have gone to ground, hopefully not into one of our numerous potholes.
Meanwhile, expect to spend an extra hour queuing in traffic as you attempt to enter Thurles this Christmas period, to collect your children from local schools.
My conclusion is that all our expensive leadership in North Tipperary has hibernated for the Winter and hopefully someone will waken them up prior to the January 2011 General Election.
In the meanwhile, do take care of those vehicle tyres, as you attempt to manoeuvre around the numerous potholes on our rural roads.
Long threatening comes at last folks. From midnight on Monday 15th November 2010, new Garda mobile safety cameras will be in use across Irish roads.
Excessive or inappropriate speeding is no doubt a major factor in road traffic collisions, as are indeed drugs, alcohol and attempts by young men to impress their young lady friends, while in control of a vehicle. Safety cameras will be on the roads all across Ireland where fatal collisions are happening as a result of these inappropriate and unacceptable practises and the locations of these roads can be viewed by clicking on here. Further information on the safety cameras and a limited list of frequently asked questions are also available by clicking here. The sections of roads, indicated on the map, were identified as having a significant proportion of collisions, whereby, in the opinion of the investigating Garda, a safe speed was exceeded.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern signed a five-year €65 million contract with the GoSafe consortium to provide the service last November following a lengthy tender process.
The GoSafe consortium is being paid a flat fee to provide the service and there is no provision for commission or bonuses irrespective of how many motorists are caught speeding.
Gardaí use a range of speed detection technology to reduce speed across Irish roads. A reduction in speed will lead to a reduction in the incidence of fatal and serious injuries and will improve road safety for all road-users.
The Gardaí will be working closely with a range of Partner Agencies, including Government Departments, the Road Safety Authority, the National Roads Authority and the community, in order to develop a national culture of safe road use and the map will be updated accordingly.
An Garda Síochána are appealing to all motorists to familiarise themselves with these sections of the road network, (If you have a computer) so do slow down, the life you save could be yours.
A Range Of Partners Working Closely – I Really Wonder Do They?
First allow me to state that I fully support 100%, any initiative, by any body or group of Partners, which will ultimately save lives.
However, let us examine just a small sample of the work done by this partnership, who dictate the speed limit’s on our various roadways;
 R639 -Travelling South to Cashel Roundabout
- Knockroe / Moycarkey (N62), correctly marked as dangerous on the garda safety camera map, speed signs allow a driving limit of 100km/h, while, what was the main Dublin to Cork road (R639) prior to the new motor way, stretching from Urlingford to Cashel, which is much wider, is limited to a speed of 80km/h. Are we being forced onto the new motorway for toll purposes?
- The Cashel to Golden Rd (R505) which is narrow with numerous dangerous bends, yes you have guessed it, speed limit 100km/h, or 20km/h faster than R639.
- Fennor Hill, that steep climb southward out of Urlingford on the R639 allows for 100km/h for about 200 metres of roadway and when you get to the clear straight stretch at the top of this steep incline, where drivers can actually observe oncoming traffic, speed is reduced to 80km/h.
- Staying on the R639, travelling south to the roundabout just outside Cashel, the roundabout shows two speed limits signs with two different speed limits indicated, (50km/h and 80km/h, Pic shown above) as was the case on R498 outside the Ragg for over 18 months and latter only recently partially corrected with just one sigh. Travelling from Cashel on this same stretch of the R639 the speed limit is 100km/h, so on this road these new cameras will have a choice of three different speeds with which to impose fines.
- Then of course there is the road to The Heath out of Thurles, which is a mere lane-way in terms of describing roadways. Here we have no speed limit indications at all, thus allowing traffic to travel at 100km/h or the National Speed Limit (62.4 mph).
Someone is going to die or be seriously hurt on the road to The Heath soon, so why not finish this work properly.
With County Councillor, Urban District Councillors, Politicians, National Roads Authority ( NRA ) officials and Gardaí travelling each day along this selected and very small chosen grid of roads, why has nothing been done, in the interests of safety and the law, surely we taxpayers pay you more than enough to note required changes. Obviously the latter individuals are driving with undue care and attention.
Then maybe these cameras are just a further method of obtaining revenues from over taxed motorists, as at €80 per speeding fine, the privatised speed cameras alone could generate roughly €40 million a year. Let’s be logical here, the €65 million spent would have filled in a lot of potholes Minister Ahern, while the banning of those caught speeding for long periods of time would have been cheaper than €65 million to introduce spy cameras, particularly in these recessionary times. Will detailed information from thes cameras be used to track the movements of motorists other than their speeding information?. Can the cars of known drug dealers be tracked for example?.
Meanwhile, are there any strange or confusing road anomalies near you, let us know and we will attempt to educate this Partnership.
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