Mr. Brian Rohan:

I am accompanied by Mr. Peter Gohery, a survivor of a serious accident on a farm, in which he unfortunately lost a leg. He will deal with any queries on surviving a farm accident. My wife Norma and I founded Embrace FARM last year following the death of my father Liam as result of an accident on our family farm in County Laois in 2012.

Embrace FARM was established to hold a remembrance service for all those lost on the farms of Ireland. The first national remembrance service was held in Abbeyleix, County Laois, in June last year in honour of all those people who had been killed or seriously injured in farm accidents. The service was led by Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland bishops and was attended by more than 600 people, including the Taoiseach's aide-de-camp, Commandant Kieran Carey, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, and the heads of numerous farming organisations and companies, including our provincial ambassadors for Embrace FARM - Mr. John Hayes, who represents Munster, Mr. Adrian Flavin from Connacht, Mr. Rory Best from Ulster, and Mr. Sean O'Brien from Leinster - and the former GAA president, Mr. Nicky Brennan.

As families made contact to ask that their loved ones' names be remembered at the service, many relayed quite harrowing stories of the practical fallout of farm fatalities, which, of course, added to the awful emotional toll. The practical toll included financial and legal issues, particularly for widows. Not only do they have to take over the farm, but their hardship is compounded by their bank accounts' being frozen and the fact that they cannot provide an income for their families or pay bills on the farm, no matter how well the business is operating. In some cases, widows are completely new to the business of farming and have no knowledge of what to do on the farm or how to deal with the reams of paperwork.

Following a meeting with the Minister last September in which we outlined the difficulties that can arise when the main farmer dies suddenly, whether as a result of a farm accident or otherwise, we requested a liaison officer within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to assist families in dealing with the paperwork, on issues as simple as when to fill out forms and how to complete them. The Minister, to his absolute credit, granted the request within two days. I must also commend him on the safety grant for farmers. We also requested a safe play area for children, which is needed on some, but not all, farms.

We have held a number of bereavement support counselling sessions with farm families affected by fatal accidents. The sessions have proved enormously beneficial and helpful to attendees, to the extent that there are now requests from across the country to roll out similar sessions, something that Embrace FARM is seeking to develop, including counselling and support for survivors of serious accidents. Financing these is our current obstacle.

As we already mentioned, we have come across many hardship cases. We know of one young widow with children who cannot access the farm business bank account and, therefore, is left struggling to provide for her children, not to mention trying to run the family farm business, pay for feed and fertiliser and buy cattle. In another situation, a woman has had to hire two solicitors, one to represent herself and another to represent her young children. She now has to take legal action against her children's estate in order to provide for her children, as she was not married to the father. We are also aware of a situation in which a bank is trying to take the family home of a widow in lieu of debts owed but the widow does not have the means to appoint a solicitor to act on her behalf as the farm's bank account has been shut down. This type of impasse must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

In the case of a family farm with heavy borrowings and no will or life cover in place, it compounds an already unbearable situation for a woman who has lost her husband, the father of her children and her family's breadwinner.

Based on the demand for supports, we have moved to put the organisation on a more professional and formal footing. We have set up a board of ten directors for Embrace FARM. We are in the process of registering as a charity. Our mission is to become a support network for those affected by fatal and non-fatal farm accidents. Our key objectives are to establish regional support networks for families, including bereavement groups, and to highlight to farming organisations and Government and State bodies that a lack of services is available to the farming community after accidents take place. As an organisation, we want to emphasise that some changes are necessary, not least within the banking sector, to enable the family to access the farm bank account following the death of the account holder, simply in order that the business can continue to operate, a wage can be paid to a farm worker or manager to keep the business running and provision can be made for the widow and children. We also suggest that when a bank gives a farmer a mortgage, life cover must kick in on day one with no opt-out facility. We believe there is a need to compel farmers to make a will. Perhaps this could be linked to farm insurance or EU payments. Perhaps it would not be possible to obtain farm insurance in the absence of a will.

Senators may be aware of our farm safety awareness campaign, What's Left Behind, which we launched last year and details of which have been circulated to the committee. This campaign was initiated in response to the dramatic rise in the number of farm fatalities, which had increased by 87% since 2013. The campaign, which involved the production and circulation to the media of a series of videos featuring family members who had lost loved ones through farm fatalities, has received huge national and local media coverage. One particular video has received more than 250,000 views. It is hoped that the campaign will shed light on the growing dangers on our farms - last year was the worst year for farm fatalities for more than 20 years - and encourage greater farm safety practices.

The Embrace FARM campaign would not have been possible without the support of the ABP Food Group, which funded it in its entirety without any request for mention. I record our gratitude for the support of this group. I also thank the families of the bereaved for their incredible generosity in allowing their harrowing stories to be told, simply in order that others might not have to face the same dreadful ordeal. We believed that this foray into farm safety awareness was essential. While our focus will remain on providing supports to the bereaved, we are asking the Government to fund a national farm safety advertisement campaign on television and radio, much like the successful campaign undertaken some years ago by the Road Safety Authority that led to a reduction in the number of road deaths. We are also asking the Government to consider rolling out a schools programme to educate the farmers of tomorrow about farm safety.

I would like to conclude by extending to all the Senators and farming representatives who are in attendance an open invitation to attend this year's Embrace FARM remembrance service, which will be held in Abbeyleix, County Laois, on 28 June 2015. If they attend, they will be able to see for themselves the devastation that is left behind following a death or serious injury on a farm in Ireland. I thank the committee for inviting me to address today's hearing. We would welcome any questions Senators might have.