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

I share with the Deputy in offering condolences to the families of those affected in that awful tragedy on Tuesday.

There are other initiatives. I see my role in farm safety as not just involving the physical form of farm safety but the mental health and well-being of farmers. My Department continues to support research into farmer health and well-being. The DCU-led farm health research project is examining farmers' mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviour to inform the development of educational mental health programmes through which we can support farmers. I announced funding of €700,000 under the recent thematic research call for the UCD-led "Farming Minds: Developing evidence-based interventions to enhance farmer mental health" project, which is very important.

I will also highlight an initiative I am very proud of, namely, getting farm safety as a scheme under targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, 3. Of the ten TAM schemes, the farm safety capital investment scheme has been significantly subscribed to by farmers. It has had the biggest number of applicants at 5,163, which is proof that when farmers are given the support they will invest in safety on their farms and put it as a top priority. Along with my €128,000 in funding to Agri Aware for its school children's farm safety initiative, it means we are touching every generation in farming to bring about that cultural change we need to make farming much safer for everyone involved.

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