Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will begin by thanking the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and his officials in the Department of Finance for their work and co-operation on this very important measure, which has been a goal of mine since my appointment as Minister of State with special responsibility for farm safety. This is one of a range of measures I have wanted to introduce. The purpose of it is twofold, as the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, outlined but an accelerated capital allowance will incentivise the investment in farm safety measures.

In my dealings with many victims of life-changing injuries as a result of farm safety incidents, as well as with families who have lost loved ones, it has been very evident that more needs to be done for those whose lives have been changed by incidents that have happened on farms. In that regard, this accelerated capital allowance is an important step in that direction. For somebody who loses a limb, becomes wheelchair bound or suffers significant injury, not only is their life changed irreparably but, as self-employed farmers, their income stream is also taken away. Their ability to be able to continue to work is greatly diminished unless they can modify the way they operate, modify the machinery and all the rest. This accelerated capital allowance allows them to make that significant investment, which is as important for their mental health in terms of being able to continue to work as well as their physical well-being and income streams.

In that regard, the measures in this accelerated capital allowance to cover equipment such as access lifts, hoists, integrated ramps for farm vehicles, including modified entry, where required, wheelchair restraints and docking stations are all a very important step, as are modified controls to enable full hand operation instead of the use of foot pedals where there has been the loss of a limb, as well as modified seating, modified machinery constraints, quick hitches on the front and the back of tractors and machinery and modified elements of machinery. These are the type of investments that somebody who suffers a very significant injury has not been able to make in the past because of the level of cost involved. This accelerated capital allowance will allow them recoup the 100% cost of that over the first two years of its expenditure.

On the other hand are the other enhanced safety measures that will encourage farmers to invest in elements that will make our farms safer and avoid more injuries in the future. As the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, outlined, agricultural vehicles and machinery have been the biggest cause of farm safety incidents followed closely by incidents involving livestock. Anti-backing gates for crushes are a very important investment. We need to incentivise farmers to understand that this investment will make a very big difference because in the likes of beef farming in particular, where margins are tight, prioritising that type of investment is key, as well as measures such as chemical stores, big bag lifters for half tonne bags of fertiliser and so on and quick hitch mechanisms. Those are measures that are not covered by targeted agricultural modernisation schemes, TAMS, so that support has not been available to date.

This is very much in keeping with the Government's commitment to reducing farm safety incidents, injury and deaths. The programme for Government sets out a clear ambition in that regard. My appointment as the first Minister of State with responsibility for farm safety is a key indication of the programme for Government. I am delighted to be able to work closely with my ministerial colleagues, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the Department of Finance in that regard. I again acknowledge the work of my officials in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine who have done much work on this also in engaging with the Department of Finance on these measures. It is one of a range of farm safety measures we are looking to introduce across a host of areas to make our farms safer and drive down the unacceptably high level of farm deaths and farm safety incidents that occur.

This week we launched an innovation partnership scheme, an EIP model, for which I secured €1 million in the budget, which is a locally-led farm safety initiative. It is a call for ideas from the ground up that can be funded now by my Department, which hopefully could feed into a new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. I want to see farm safety as an integral part of a new CAP. This EIP was launched this week and the call that will be open until 29 January is an opportunity for farmers, community groups, voluntary organisations, farm organisations and the rest to come together and put forward their ideas. We will evaluate them and fund the best of them that have the ability to be scaled up. The EIP model has been successful in many other areas and one I am very excited about using in the area of farm safety.

We also secured €14 million for our training budget that will train up to 50,000 farmers in the area of farmer health and well-being. That will be rolled out throughout 2021. The train the trainer programme, On Firm Ground, where we take farm advisers and advise them on how best to deal with the farmers they deal with on a daily basis, is another element to that.

I want to acknowledge my work with the Minister of State, Deputy English, regarding our restructuring of the farm safety partnership as part of the Health and Safety Authority, HSA. I also have ambitions to develop a dedicated Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine farm safety strategy that will roll that out.

I acknowledge again the role of the Department of Finance. I hope this accelerated capital allowance will be welcomed and supported by Members of the House. I outlined the other measures because the accelerated capital allowance alone is not a panacea but it is a very important step in a range of measures we are taking to make our farms safer, drive down the number of farm safety incidents and the unacceptably high level of fatalities and significant injuries we are seeing on farms across the country.

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