Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The HSA is an area for which I am responsible. To the best of my knowledge, there is no direct financial contribution from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine but our Department and that Department, as the Deputy will know, work closely together on initiatives. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, had some public engagements last year in regard to raising awareness of farm safety. I intend to co-operate closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. As I said to Deputy Kyne while the Deputy had stepped out, the number of farm fatalities are worrying. The HSA will direct resources into the area of farm safety and walks, and also discussion groups. They are important to get to the harder-to-reach farmers and I believe that has to come from the community with the support of the HSA. That would be a progressive way of spending Health and Safety Authority resources. Obviously inspections are very important but they, of themselves, do not save enough lives. There is never an acceptable level of fatalities on farms.

The Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, and other organisations work very well together. I was very impressed when I visited them at the National Ploughing Championships. Their level of commitment to this whole space is truly astonishing. They see the importance of it, as do we and as does the whole system. We must work hard to make sure we can get those numbers down. There is never an acceptable level of fatalities but the HSA continues to work co-operatively with the IFA, the ICMSA and others to try to address those issues.