Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Monday, 23 March 2015

Seanad Public Consultation Committee

Farm Safety: Discussion

2:00 pm

Photo of Michael ComiskeyMichael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the people from the Department to the meeting. This is a very important topic. I also welcome the people from the farming organisations. We all know that it is very important to highlight the issue of farm safety and there have been far too many deaths on farms over the past year. Our condolences go to the families of those people who have been lost.

I am actively involved in farming and I was farming this morning before I left home. I fed a very dangerous cow that calved on Friday - these are the things that need to be highlighted - because we could not go into her pen for about two or three days. Some farmers do not realise the dangers and they will walk in and the next thing they are penned against a wall or seriously injured.

I welcome the farm safety scheme that was introduced by the Department several months ago, because it will encourage farmers to put in place slag covers, safety gates for handling cattle and all that. The question now, as alluded to by Senator Conway, is how we implement the recommendations that are coming forward. We all have our own ideas about that. It is very important we raise awareness of the issues among young people in schools and agricultural colleges. We have seen through the environment projects in schools how young children will tell their parents about the importance of recycling and so on. If we create an awareness among children of the relevant issues, it will be helpful into the future. We should avoid imposing more inspections and red tape on farmers in the course of their duty, because they are doing a very difficult job. We must, however, make farmers aware of the risks. The big question, as I said, is how we move on from here with that end in view.

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