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

Absolutely. Promotion is a key part of my role. In the children's farm safety initiative in schools, in conjunction with Agri Aware, we are using the positive pester power of children. The Deputy is well aware, as I am, that when children decide they want something, they do not leave you alone until they get it. Instead of me pleading with my uncle to get on top of a very dangerous load of bales on the trip home, as I did 40 years ago, those children are now pestering their parents by saying what they are doing is not safe because they learned that in school. That is a very positive initiative and way of doing that.

The point the Deputy made on promotion is very valid. There are numerous ways to do that. We have had joint TV initiatives with the HSA in the past, but I am acutely aware of how farmers in the modern day now get their information. It is largely through their mobile phones, online and digital. We have to change. We funded an online initiative last year, which got directly to farmers where they sourced their news, to place adverts, pieces of information and key campaigns throughout all the seasons. At this time of the year, it is about calving and later it will be about silage, slurry spreading and agitation. At those dangerous points, we are getting the key message of how to operate more safely and how better to identify risk to farmers at that time.

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