Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am aware that during an interview on RTE radio last Sunday, Martin O'Halloran, the CEO of the Health and Safety Authority, stated that he had submitted a workforce plan to my Department requesting, I think, 48 additional posts for the HSA. That was just received on 20 September as a draft plan. I have not had an opportunity to study it in detail yet. The topic under discussion on Sunday was farm safety. There were two very tragic accidents at the time of the ploughing championships, as we know. I visited the HSA stand at the ploughing championships and thought they were doing extraordinary work and getting huge attendances in terms of raising awareness and focusing on farm safety. I would want to support that work in every way possible so that we can improve safety on farms. We do not want to see those tragedies being repeated. One death is obviously one too many.