Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Mr. Connie O'Driscoll of Mizen Rovers GAA Club and Mr. Patrick Duffy on their presentations. Until Mr. O'Driscoll spoke we had not heard as much about Goleen since P. J. Sheehan was a Member of the other House. However, we never forget about it. It is highly appropriate that a small club which represents an organisation that has roots in the rural community and is present in every parish in the country should be to the forefront in promoting farm safety. Mizen Rovers has taken a novel approach in using prominent GAA players to raise awareness of the issues involved. It is a worthy initiative which should be taken up by the Health and Safety Authority and everybody involved in the promotion of farm safety. I compliment Mizen Rovers GAA Club on its proposals and care for players. I have noted the details included in its submission of its driving academy and so on. It is clearly a very progressive club.

Mr. Duffy's board game is a novel idea. He stressed what most farming organisations have already stressed, namely, that education is the key to farm safety. He was able to quote from the HSE-Teagasc booklet, where he got most of his information from and where he was taught farm safety, and this shows the importance of leaflets in education, especially that of young people.

A number of people have spoken about transition year and primary schools and I agree that if we inform people at a young age about farm safety that is how we will win because, mar a deireann an seanfhocal, "Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí." That is what we should be doing as regards farm safety.