Farm incomes may have plummeted in 2002, but tractors were the only category of vehicles that registered a sales increase last year.
The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office reveal a significant fall-off in the number of new vehicles taxed in 2002, apart from tractors.
While the figures are not sales data, they record every new vehicle taxed last year, making them a very accurate reflection of sales patterns in the State. All new vehicles must be taxed.
Worsening economic conditions resulted in the number of new cars being taxed plummeting by more than 10,000. Between January and November 2002, 147,731 new cars were taxed, compared with 158,428 for the same period in 2001.
The trend was mirrored in the "goods vehicles" category - down from 29,631 in 2001 to 27,150 in 2002. The number of new motorcycles taxed also fell, from 6,626 to 5,343.
But the number of new tractors being taxed proved much more robust, despite claims of falling farm incomes.
Between January and November 2001, 2,571 new tractors were taxed. Last year in the same 11-month period that figure rose to 2,725.
News that tractor sales bucked the national trend of falling vehicle sales last year comes on the same day farmers were due to hold a second protest in as many weeks in Dublin city centre.
A spokesman for the IFA said some farmers are now opting to invest in machinery such as tractors because they no longer hire labourers.
"There is a shortage of labour and as well as that farmers are finding that they have to be sole operators because they do not have the money to employ help around their farms", he said
He added that a lot of tractors bought last year would have been acquired by contractors and not by individual farmers. Contractors lease machines to farmers.
Of the tractors bought by farmers, almost all would be acquired under some deferred payment agreement, he said.
