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

I thank Deputy Griffin for raising a really important issue. Due to the prevalence of farm safety issues and farm workplace incidents, farmers are the most likely workers to lose their lives. Farming is the most dangerous profession in Ireland. A farmer is seven times more likely to lose their life in a workplace incident than any other one of the more than 2.5 million workers in this country who is in a different profession. That meant that we put a particular focus on this issue when we formed this Government. I was the first Minister of State to be given direct responsibility for farm safety. In that time, I have used my role in the Department of agriculture, working with the Health and Safety Authority, which has statutory responsibility for workplace safety, to work on its promotion and changing the culture.

It also includes, structurally within the Department, getting a dedicated unit set up, as well as a dedicated fund, which stands at €2.5 million following the most recent budget, to support initiatives to promote farm safety practices, risk awareness and behavioural change around farm safety from a young age. We have a range of ways of doing that. We have done it through working with the HSA on media and promotional campaigns, following on from joint media campaigns in 2023. In conjunction with the farm safety partnership advisory committee, we put together the booklet, "How to Make Construction Appointments for Your Farm", which was distributed to 125,000 farmers as part of their 2024 basic income support for sustainability, BISS, packs. We know that when construction takes place on farms, that is a time of real risk and danger.

Beyond that, there is the On Feirm Ground initiative, which I am very proud of. My Department works in collaboration with the HSE and the Department of Health to co-fund a farmers' physical and mental health awareness programme. This includes trained agricultural advisers and has now expanded to bring in private veterinary practitioners, departmental staff and other professionals who are in regular contact with farmers and are ideally situated to signpost farmers to relevant health services. We have also incorporated training through the suckler carbon efficiency programme to 15,000 farmers. The agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES. training scheme provides an overview of health and safety, while knowledge transfer programmes will include farm safety, farm health and well-being as priority topics.

I will touch on a number of other areas in my supplementary answer.

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