Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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I am a former Minister whose Department was responsible for this, and I found the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine quite unwilling to progress it on the scale which was necessary. The Department needs to change its attitude to CEDRA and the whole Department needs to realign itself, given the challenges we face as a country, not just with Brexit but in repositioning our country from the point of view of planning. I encourage the Department to engage more in this and to try to work more closely with other Departments. The lack of engagement, funding and overall will from the Department in this area has been astounding.

I want to say a few positive things about farm safety, which is a real issue. I thank the Department for its initiatives in this regard and for the way in which it has co-operated in the programmes. Unfortunately, expenditure is lower than expected and progress is not happening. We are having more farm deaths than ever before and I ask the Department to redouble its efforts in this area. I ask Mr. O'Driscoll to work with the line Minister to find more funding and look at other measures to help. A chap from Galway was caught in a PTO shaft and lost his leg. He goes around to schools, takes his prosthetic leg off and puts in on a table to shock the agriscience students in the class. He is accompanied by a man whose own brother, someone I knew well, died. We need to redouble our efforts on the schools programme because that is where we affect people. Younger people have a bigger impact on older people and we need to start on the ground, which is inside schools. As this chap cannot go around all the time explaining how he lost his leg, we need more funding for this.

My next point relates to the intergenerational nature of farming. We need to get involved in mobile devices and apps. Farming is seasonal and the safety mechanisms which work in autumn do not necessarily work in summer. I encourage the Department to look at programmes to address this and I will write with some ideas. Testimonials on public media, TV and radio are very important and the Department should redouble its efforts to put forward more funding in this area. People across politics would support the Department in this regard. It is unfortunate that expenditure is lower than anticipated. I know the Department can only put forward programmes and cannot do everything itself but we would all be appreciative if a specific unit was set up to push it forward.