Professor Gerry Boyle:

Farm safety is the remit of our advisory service. We do a significant volume of research on the causes of farm accidents, focusing not only on mortality rates but farmer health in general. We have a specialist adviser dedicated to farm safety. This person is responsible for training Teagasc advisers throughout the country, of which we have approximately 280, on the latest thinking in regard to reducing accidents on farms. This person also ensures farm safety is on the agenda of all discussion groups on a regular basis. We are in the process of recruiting a second specialist because we think the workload has become too onerous for one specialist. This person also works in collaboration with our frontline advisers. Everything we do on farm safety is in partnership with the Health and Safety Authority, HSA. We work hand in glove with the HSA to deliver our annual farm safety course. Farmers sign up for this course. Along with the HSA, we have identified that awareness is one thing but getting farmers to do the things they know they should be doing is the challenge. For this reason, we have undertaken research to identify the underlying behaviour that causes a man or woman to do something on the farm that he or she knows is hazardous.

There is particular concern at the moment with regard to elderly farmers. Unfortunately, a lot of the tragic accidents in recent times involved elderly farmers, some of them aged 80 plus, overturned tractors and livestock. The reason for this is, we think, pretty obvious. Many young people are taking up jobs off-farm and leaving management of the farm to their elderly relatives. This is an area on which we intend to increase our focus. We also work closely with the Department and other bodies such as the FBD Trust, which has a major farm safety programme, and the committees within the farm organisations. We have been talking about this issue for a long time. Unfortunately, the statistics are still moving in the wrong direction. I do not know the answer.