Mr. Conor O'Brien:

There are many risks and dangers on farms. There are many lone workers in farming and many of them are over 55 and even over 65. Farming involves the use of very large and dangerous machinery, and farm animals can be very dangerous. As the Deputy said, people are working under a lot of pressure. They work long hours to try to keep things going. There are many reasons for fatalities in the farming industry.

Regarding HSA inspections, we do not look for returns or anything like that. We do not look for anything from farmers. We just carry out our normal inspection regime. We try to fit our inspection campaigns in with whatever the seasonal matter might be. For instance, coming into silage season we carry out machinery inspections. At calving time, we work with farmers to identify how to stay safe when working with animals. At harvesting time, we again look at machinery.

We work through the different seasons and the different cycles in the farming industry to try to prevent hazards and to keep things at the forefront of farmers' minds when they are working in particular situations.