Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 29 January 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Farm Inspections: Health and Safety Authority

10:00 am

Mr. Martin O'Halloran:

I thank the Chairman and Senator Paschal Mooney again for their observations. We should have predicated all of our points - it is in our submission - but once again it is of critical importance to recognise the devastating impact on families and communities. We cannot state this often enough because the HSA and the inspectors can see the impact it has and, as I stated, it stays in the memory of families for generations. I will come back to the GL Noble Denton research, but in terms of sharpening the message, we will certainly take on board the observation made by Senator Paschal Mooney and ascertain whether there is a mechanism whereby it could be developed in a way that could be used. That is why we suggested publicising "five do's and do not's" and having them in some form of hardware on farms. We will talk to the other partners in the farm safety partnership about the subject. Mr. Pat Griffin is the senior inspector who, together with our occupational psychologist, oversaw the GL Noble Denton research. I will ask him to touch on some of the messages on the stress, the paperwork, the fatigue and some of the key findings involved in this regard.

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