Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming today. I am not from a farming background and the closest I get to a farm is when I drive past one but a number of issues concern me. Senator Cummins referred to the 96 deaths on farms in the past ten years. The terrible thing about a death on a farm is that a farm is a living thing and families have to go on living there after a fatality, frequently having to pass a point where a fatality occurred. On Saturday, I heard a moving story on RTE on that particular subject.

I have relations who are farmers and I am concerned at the very young age at which family members are put into machinery such as monstrous tractors. At this time of the year a lot of machinery will be moved around and I sometimes feel it is far more dangerous in fields than it is on roads.

Sometimes I feel that it is far more dangerous in fields than it is on the roads. That is one of the things about which I am concerned.

Another concern relates to the area of innovation and how long it takes the Department to appraise and grant aid a new safety device or procedure when somebody comes up with an innovation. To pick up again on something that was said on Saturday morning, a device was designed to prevent people falling into slurry pits, especially when the pits are agitated. Has that been brought to the Department's attention? Has it been seen by the Department and is it providing grant aid for it?

I listen to the radio show every Saturday morning and I compliment the Department as it comes out of it well every time. However, somehow or other the information that is available online does not seem to be getting the hits from farmers. A comparison was made between an issue that came up on social media and a safety issue which showed that the social media issue got more hits than the safety issue. That concerns me. I am delighted to hear the text messaging system is working.

The final area on which I wish to focus relates to education. Every farming community is within striking distance of a local education and training board, ETB, school. Does the Department see a role for liaison between the ETBs and the Department in order to deliver basic safety training? At the gate of every farm a notice should display the number of accident-free days as that would focus people on the dangers that exist as they arrive on a farm, but more importantly, it would remind the farmer every day that he or she is living in a dangerous environment.