Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives for attending and for their presentation. Sadly, far too many lives have been lost in the past year. I join colleagues in offering my sympathy to all the people who have been affected by such loss. The representatives outlined the authority's programme for the coming year. I agree with other speakers that the knowledge transfer and the discussion groups are important. Many farmers are involved in discussion groups and they come together and share information among themselves, which perhaps is much easier to do than an inspector coming in and doing that. With regard to inspectors, the carrot - rather than stick - approach would be best. When an inspector visits a farm yard, and I know that the authority's officials do this, the first thing they would do is to offer advice to the farmer, but if there is a subsequent visit and jobs required are not being done, the stick approach could be used at that stage. It is important to encourage farmers to get involved.

I am aware that the authority does a good deal of work in the schools and that should be continued. That is a great way of raising awareness. If children learn something relevant to what is happening at home or on the farm in school, they will talk to their parents and other farmers about it. We see the great work that has been done in educating children about the environment, recycling and so on, which encourages children to get involved at a very young age.

It is important to make the safety statement simple. The grant scheme was touched on. I have said previously that the ceiling of the grant scheme at €2,000 is too high and that the grant should kick in when a farmer has spent €1,000. Sometimes simple jobs will make a farm much safer. In my own case I got a galvanised cover for slats which were being replaced by heavy concrete slats and it only cost around €400. That made a great difference. Falls from roofs are another problem. There is a provision in the safety grant where a mesh could be installed under the Perspex or skylight sheeting on the roof. Those are my points and I note that many other issues have already been covered.