Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 3 November 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Farm Safety: Discussion

Photo of Martin HeydonMartin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. The idea of work experience is the young farmer gains that knowledge. I know I did when I did my green cert over 20 years ago. It is about working on a different host farm and people learn more on another farm than they might at home working for parents, etc. It is a very valuable part of the green cert. I would not want to see a position where somebody takes advantage of a young farmer when it comes to the number of hours he or she is expected to work. Work experience has a role to play and it is valuable. There must be safeguards around the process. The Deputy might give me the details of the specific case and I can look into it. Farmers must be approved as well to take on those positions and with that comes a responsibility to ensure all the jobs being done have a learning element.

There is very much a learning element to it. One can also talk about the type of work one is asking them to do. There must be a learning element to all the work that has been done there.

Outside of that, I would say to young farmers that in our support for young farmers and to encourage the transition, there are challenges, especially with farm safety and the older age of our farmers. There are so many farmers over the age of 65 and into their 70s farming and this is highlighted in the figures for farm fatalities where so many of incidents involved those who are in their 70s. It is very important to encourage intergenerational change, whether it is through partnership or through intergenerational change. We have made changes in recent years around long-term leasing and the 60% TAMS grant to encourage that generational change. These are all measures to support young farmers and to encourage them not only to take over the enterprise but also to invest and make farms safer and more efficient in how they do that as well.

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