Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 1989, the Health and Safety Authority is the State body charged with overall responsibility for the administration, enforcement and promotion of workplace safety and health.

The breakdown of the number of deaths from the use of tractors and farm machinery is as follows:

There is no specific data available on the level of non-fatal accidents in the sector from the use of tractors and farm machinery. The Health and Safety Authority set up a farm safety action group in February 2002. Its terms of reference include "the development of a national action programme, co-ordinating the actions of the representative organisations and assigning tasks". In April 2003, the group published the Farm Safety Plan 2003-2007. This plan sets specific targets against a base year of 2001, including a reduction by 50% in farm fatalities with no child fatalities, a reduction in the farm accident rate to less than 1,600 per annum and an increase to 50% of farmers complying with health and safety legislation.

The plan recognises the need for a range of activities to achieve these targets and has adopted an approach based on engineering controls, enforcement, and education and training. Central to the success of the plan is the development of a "safety partnership" between all of the interested parties to develop and co-ordinate the approach contained in the plan and for the parties to have given a written commitment to their contribution to the implementation of the plan. The Health and Safety Authority, as part of its commitment, is to undertake a minimum of 1,000 farm inspections in 2004, with appropriate enforcement action and follow up inspections being taken where necessary.

Following the publication of the plan, the Health and Safety Authority has established the farm safety action group as a standing committee of the board of the authority and the farm safety partnership advisory committee to ensure that the plan is progressed and kept under review.

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