Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

As the Deputy knows the HSA is under the remit of the Department of the Minister, Deputy Bruton. We have linked in with it in a very serious way. It is also part of the farm partnership response to safety and is working with farm organisations and a series of other stakeholders. The impression I got from the various conferences it held this year and the supportive advertising campaign it is starting is that the HSA is very serious about farm safety because of the extraordinary dominance of the agricultural sector in terms of the current levels of tragedy.

If one puts the rest of my Department's responsibility into the figures from the point of view of fishing and forestry, they are even worse. Farming, fishing and forestry are dangerous livelihoods and we do not have sufficient understanding within those industries of the response needed to make a significant impact on these figures. Everyone is now working towards that, including the HSA and farm organisations.

See this speech in context