Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Halloran for his presentation. Like Deputy Ó Cuív, we appreciate the delegation coming here today at short notice. The backdrop of the debate is a very bad year for fatalities, not least Lester Ryan's father only last week.

It was stated in the presentation that the authority has experienced a reduction in available resources. The number of staff has been reduced from 197 down to 152 and the budget has been reduced from €24 million down to €17.7 million. I cannot help but notice the fact that only 22 of the 152 staff have a full or partial involvement in agriculture and 13 are full-time equivalents focused solely on agriculture inspections. Given the number of agricultural holdings in the Twenty-six Counties one is talking of anything up to 150,000 farms but I am open to correction. If I am correct then it means there is one inspector per 7,000 farms. Is such staffing sustainable? Is a shortage of staff a contributing factor? To put an adequate safety programme in place one must first know the dangers which exist on some farms. How can we overcome the problem?

The change in machinery was mentioned in the presentation as playing a big part in safety on farms. As someone who grew up on a farm I am well aware of the changes and advancements in horsepower, size and number of machinery compared with what was on farms in the past.

Many of those who have lost their lives on farms are children. What percentage of those accidents is related to machinery compared with slurry, septic tanks and so on?

As farming advances and machinery becomes more powerful and prevalent, there will need to be a cultural change to a greater focus on the dangers posed by machinery. There were 30 fatalities last year. The rate of fatalities on farms compared with that in other industries is quite alarming. The Health and Safety Authority, HSA, talks about a similar situation in the Six Counties and is working on an all-Ireland basis. That is commendable because not only is safety central to its work, but it is focusing on the cultural aspect, to work together in harmony to reduce the fatalities. Much of its work is educational. That will change the culture in respect of safety, which is paramount. That is a big help. The farming organisations have a big and positive role to play in so far as the HSA has a collective approach to dealing with the ongoing problems. I take it that the research into, and monitoring of, international best practices on farm safety is part of the HSA’s farming conferences and so forth. I wish it the best of luck in its endeavours. The curtailment of resources makes its job much more difficult than it should be. If we can do anything to help in that regard, the witnesses should say so.