Paraic Brady (Fine Gael)
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I am a farmer and attended a scene where a young lad lost his life in my area. I was the second person to be there. It could have been avoided, the same as everything else, all these other accidents. There were two in our local area. It is true what they say. It not only has a devastating effect on people's lives but also on communities. To this day, that farm is never going to be the same. I ran an event in Granard farmers' mart to educate kids. It was sponsored by AXA, Kiernan Milling and an agri-adviser. We brought sixth class to the mart and went through safety regarding what happens and where the dangers are. That is key to this whole thing. It needs to be rolled out throughout the countryside. Marts are there. Kids understand they are where the cattle come to be sold. They can also be used for safety events. Machinery operators even come there and talk about the shafts and the dangers. If we only saved 1%, which is very small but it is a huge difference. Regarding the statistics on farm safety, when a person takes out an insurance policy, is risk assessment done on farms? As Senator Daly said just now, 16-year-olds are getting up on 200 horse power tractors with 15 tonnes of silage going down the road.