Mr. John Comer:

The ICMSA welcomes the opportunity to shine a torch on where the focus and investment should be in trying to avoid fatalities. Members might say I have a vested interest in this, and they would be right because, number one, I am a farmer, and number two, I want to stay alive. It is in the interest of everybody participating in farming every day of the week to try to find a pragmatic approach so that they stand the best chance of getting back into the same bed they got out of in the morning. The statistic that a person is eight times more likely to die on an Irish or European farm than in any other occupation is shocking and damning. There should be an onus on all stakeholders to find a workable solution.

First, I wish to back up Mr. Downey with regard to representing and being an advocate for farmers. We have 18 statutory management requirements relating to cross-compliance. This puts farmers under enormous stress. We can blame many things, but what primarily puts farmers at risk is the adoption of a "bigger, cheaper, faster" policy. Farmers are becoming busier. They need more livestock numbers to be economically viable and have far more paperwork. A full-time farmer on the average farm now dedicates one day per week to paperwork. If we add in another layer and another plethora of potential inspections, paperwork and sanctions to the single farm payment, it will heap stress upon stress and will be a retrograde step. We support the endeavours of the Health and Safety Authority to encourage inspections and to bring people along with the carrot approach rather than the stick approach, because we know this will work. Anybody here today who expects a quick fix is in the wrong forum. It will take a generation to turn this around. Ireland has 15.1 fatalities per 100,000. The average in Europe is 12 per 100,000. We are on the wrong side of that statistic, but it is similar across the rest of Europe. The nature of the occupation involves multitasking and always being in a hurry, which puts many farmers at risk. The ICMSA has put a lot of emphasis on knowledge transfer and the discussion groups, in which people engage with their peer groups and visit other farms.

As has been pointed out, a person does not see risk on their own farm, but as soon as they walk into somebody else's situation, because they are not looking at the bullocks which need to be fed, they focus on the overview. Knowledge transfer through visiting other farms is of primary importance to learn the triggers for very dangerous elements.

With regard to upgrading farm equipment, there is room in the farm safety scheme for a scrappage scheme and we propose the committee should examine this. It would give an incentive to farmers and business people to make the first move to replace outdated equipment and machinery which could potentially be death traps. We also want the forum to examine the green low-carbon agri-environmental scheme, GLAS, which does not have a farm safety element. It is difficult enough for the more intensive farms, where most accidents occur, to access GLAS because there are not enough measures to draw down payments to make it worth their while. We need to encourage the Minister and the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to examine incorporating a measure to deal with this.

With regard to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, ICBF, and livestock docility, angry cows, angry bulls and difficult to manage livestock make a big contribution to farm accidents. We need to focus on genomic selection and the data available from the ICBF on breeding in docility and the hereditary aspect of this gene and ensure farmers have this tool at their disposal when they access the indices in order that they can breed quieter and more manageable stock.

I do not want to be like RTE and provide for repeats. Much of the rest of our submission has been outlined. This is the first time I have heard about placing a sign at a farm gate and I do not like the idea. It would be too poignant for many family members who have lost someone to have a sign stating how many days the farm has been accident free. It is by the grace of God many of us have not gone there. It sounds like a boast to put up a big sign to state a farm is 2,000 days accident free. It does not wash. This is my initial reaction, but I have not studied it in depth.

Three times a year we distribute a newsletter to all dairy farmers, and we always highlight farm safety. Our slogan is it is better to lose one minute in life than to lose your life in one minute. I wish the forum the very best and we will try to make as positive a contribution as we can. My colleague, our policy officer, Mary Buckley, has put much work into research which may come up with some solutions as to how we can make the industry safer.