Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives from the Health and Safety Authority. All the specific questions have been covered but I wish to make a few comments. Johnny Ryan was a close neighbour of mine and lived only a little over a mile from me and I knew him very well. I extend my sympathy to the Ryan family and to all families who have lost a family member as a result of a farm accident during the past year. Johnny was a model farmer. Nobody goes out in the morning thinking they will have an accident or that they will crash their car. That was a freak accident, as are the majority of farm accidents.

We all know what is supposed to be the oldest profession but I believe farming is the oldest profession where people have had to provide food for themselves. It has been practised here and all over the world for thousands upon thousands of years. Farmers are fearful of inspections. They have inspections for single farm payments, from Bord Bia, from county councils and from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, for the agri-environmental options scheme, AEOS, and they can also have inspections from the Health and Safety Authority. A headline on the "AgriLand" news portal states: "Up to €5,000 fine for carrying a children in tractors (HSA says no more excuses)". That will not do the authority's story any good. It will frighten farmers and build hostility among them with regard to a visit from a health and safety inspector. It is all about co-operation. Everybody has hit on that point. The main aspects to this are awareness, education, training and advice. That is the only way to address this problem. It is not one that can be solved because there will always be freak accidents, but it can be addressed though Teagasc, the farm organisations and an advertising campaign. Unfortunately last year was also a bad year for road fatalities. However, the Road Safety Authority has had good success with its advertising campaigns in tackling the problem of drink driving. I know that funding is a problem for the Health and Safety Authority. If we have to, we need to be lobbied to contact the Ministers for the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Agriculture, Food and the Marine to secure funding if the authority is to run a proper advertising campaign.

The largest number of accidents occur in the construction industry and on farms and we have been given the statistics on that. The construction industry has been depressed because there has not been much construction work here in recent years. As Mr. O'Halloran said, one would not bring a child on to a building site, but farms are not building sites. Farms are where people live, where people make a living and children will be around. I wish to make a few points about the banning of seven year olds from travelling in tractors. Many of the modern tractors are very safe because they have seats and seat belts. If a child hears a tractor being driven, they will run out into the yard but parents also have a responsibility to ensure farm safety. As Deputy Deering mentioned, in many farm households, the farmer's wife is out working as child care costs a good deal of money. If grandparents are not around, the farmer has to take responsibility sometimes for the child during the day. He cannot sit inside to do his work, he has to go out into the yard. If the child is not in school, where is he or she to stay? A farmer may have to bring the child on the tractor. I believe a child is safer on a tractor. I do not want to go into individual cases but I note from pages 38 to 41, inclusive, of this document that it is stated that so many under the age of five were killed, but none of those was killed on a tractor; they were killed by tractors when they were in the yard or by an implement in a yard. It would be safer in that respect if a child were on a tractor.

Mr. Griffin said that dairy farms are the most dangerous. I was amazed about that because I thought the more intensive farms would have better cattle-handling facilities and perhaps better machinery. It is important to develop co-operation with the farmers and not to frighten them because if one scares them, they will not co-operate. Finances are an issue in this respect. Many farmers are struggling to make a living, especially beef farmers and smaller farmers. They cannot afford to do some jobs. They have to educate and feed their family and they may leave something that needs to be fixed in the yard on the long finger. The grants paid by the Department must be reviewed because the Minister has to reduce the threshold in terms of what people can apply for in order that the small jobs can be done. The small things are what can catch one out. It is all about training, education, awareness and co-operation. Unfortunately, farmers are sole traders. They work on their own and it is a lonely life for many of them. The idea of inspections frightens farmers. If we can ensure there is even one death less, it would be great. We will not be able to prevent every farm accident. We need to make sure that people are always aware of the dangers on farms and that could be done through advertising in the schools. It is great to see the co-operation in schools, including in the schools in Kilkenny, and that should continue at second level also. I ask the representatives not to frighten the farmers or to pose the threat of a prosecution because they will not co-operate then. They have enough inspections.