Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. We probably do not shine a light on it often enough. Mental health is a critical issue facing all of society, including farmers. Farmers are particularly vulnerable to pressures owing to the issue of isolation and all the pressures that come with the role.

I am aware of the UCD study. I have met its authors because I was keen to get their take on not just the results but also the process they went through. The study has revealed the extent to which Irish farmers are experiencing a range of challenges and stressors that are negatively impacting their mental health. They highlight the importance of mental health initiatives to support farmers. The Government has prioritised farm safety, health and well-being. We have secured dedicated funding of €2.5 million in budget 2023 for a range of initiatives, including initiatives to support increased awareness of mental health among farmers.

In my experience, a lot of the challenge has been identifying farmers who are under pressure and struggling and signposting the supports to them. It is not that we do not have a lot of supports for people who are suffering with their mental health; it is a matter of identifying where people are under pressure.

In a lot of other work settings, people are surrounded by colleagues and are in a workplace where people can identify that they are under pressure and maybe have that conversation with them. In the isolation of farming, when the farmer may spend a lot of time on their own, those pressures can be compounded by that isolation but also may not be picked up on by others. That is why, along with the HSE and the Department of Health, my Department is co-funding a farmers' physical and mental health awareness programme called On Feirm Ground. Approximately 250 agricultural advisers have received training and this year the programme will be rolled out to staff in my Department and other professionals who are in regular contact with farmers. The idea is that it starts with the advisers, which is a very trusted position in a farmer's life. I am talking about the conversation over the gate at the end of a farm visit. Advisers will be supported to understand so that if they do see a farmer under stress, they will be able to ask him or her the right questions, use the right language and signpost the supports that are available.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is dead right. I do not think it was a surprise for him when he saw the three main contributors to the stress. In any of his dealings with constituents, with farmers down in Cork or at the farmers' meetings that I and my ministerial colleagues have, the same points keep coming up. Farmers feel blamed when the debate about the environment comes up. As the Deputy says, farmers are custodians of the land. I want to put on the record that we as a Government have farmers' backs. We will continue to articulate the important role farmers play in food production, in feeding a population far bigger than ours here in Ireland, but also in contributing hugely to our rural economy. That is vital because of the spin-off benefit that has. Their role is really valued. At the same time we need to articulate clearly on national media debates and all the rest, and we all have our opportunity to do this, that farmers are on a journey to produce food more sustainably in the future and are part of the solution to the climate challenge. We all need to call out any commentators in the environmental area who seek to paint everything as black and white, who seek to paint people to blame or not to blame. Farming is making a huge contribution through making its activity more environmentally friendly into the future, improving water quality, reversing biodiversity loss and all those measures. Farmers are at the heart of that and they should not be blamed for the damage and the challenges we have.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is dead right. Covid brought this home to us when the main social interactions farmers had were all taken away from them - the mart, the pub at the weekend for a pint, a local sports match or a religious service. They were all opportunities for farmers, who spend most of their week on their own in isolation. That compounds the pressures they might be facing. If a farmer is sitting in a tractor for 12 hours a day and listening to media commentary telling them they are to blame for all the challenges in the country, no wonder they will feel bad about themselves. At the same time, if they lose the social interaction piece the Deputy spoke about in the mart, which is so important for them being able to engage in, then they do not have the ability to release that the same way.

Through my Department I have funded eight European innovation partnership, EIP, projects. These are locally-led initiatives that look at peer-to-peer support and a range of different supports to develop and support the meitheal, where we all look out for each other. My Department is also funding the DCU-led FarMHealth research project, examining farmers' mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviour, which will inform the development of educational mental health interventions for farmers. A lot of this is about identifying where a farmer is under stress and reaching out. We also have the Farmers' Health and Wellbeing booklet, which went out to 122,000 farmers as part of the basic income support for sustainability, BISS, application process.