Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Votes have been called in the Dáil so we will conclude in the next few minutes. The committee will return at 2.30 p.m. for a meeting in private session with Mr. Alan Morgan, former valuer with the OPW.

Following on on the matter of farm safety, the annual report states that farms were the largest category of workplace fatalities in Ireland. There were 24 incidents, of which 14 were people over 65 years. It was mentioned at a previous meeting - I do not recall if it was with Mr. Gleeson or his predecessor. While he says it is a matter for the Health and Safety Authority, I make a plea to him, as I did on the last occasion, that someone in the Department take a bit more interest in it. It might be done through Teagasc or another body. Now that the economy is picking up, people who might otherwise have been available to work on the farm are gone. It is grandfathers who are doing all the work now. I look at my county, and most of the farmers are in their 70s because their sons have gone out to work. They are trying to do the work and maybe their sons or daughters help out in the evening. I can envisage this getting worse because more people are working on their own on farms. Years ago, there would have been two or three people working on a farm, but now it is only one. People are working alone with big machinery and if something goes wrong with it or an animal does something it is a problem. I know it is a policy issue but in the interest of people working in rural industry, I ask the Department to take some initiative. I know Teagasc has done something on it, but more needs to be done. If there were 24 deaths in the health sector, which is the biggest employer in the country, people would be up in arms, or similarly in the construction sector. Because the fatalities are so dispersed and are one here or there, it is not as visible. Mr. Gleeson will get the point I am making. We need more to be done, and I worry it will get worse.