Laws aim to control use of recreational off-road vehicles

RECREATIONAL off-road vehicles may have to be registered and licensed in future, partly because their owners are damaging upland heath and bog habitats designated as special areas of conservation.

Farmers who own the lands containing these habitats are likely to welcome a crackdown on recreational users of quad bikes, sports utility vehicles and scramblers.

They could be penalised because recreational users are destroying the habitats on which farmers graze their sheep, warned Mary Alexandra White, TD, in the Dáil.