Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Higgins for giving me the opportunity to come to the House to clarify the Department's position on the issue raised. I also thank her for her good wishes to me.

We all agree that the tragic deaths of three members of the Spence family shocked the entire community and every effort must be made to avoid a repetition of such a dreadful accident. My Department has been in contact with colleagues in the Health and Safety Authority to understand the circumstances behind the dreadful events of that day last September. I am fully committed to the need to increase farmers' awareness of health and safety and to the need to influence the behaviour of farmers to act on this knowledge.

It is a fact that farming is the most dangerous occupation in the country with more people killed on farms than all other workplaces combined. To a large degree the nature of a farm is at the core of the problem. A farm is, to a great extent, seen first and foremost as a family home. This means it is seen as a place of security and welcome for family, friends, neighbours and visitors. However, a farmyard is a very dangerous place of work with large modern machinery and other dangers such as animals and extensive slurry storage areas. The difficulty is to marry the family home part of the farm with the very dangerous farmyard and other dangerous areas of the extended farm. Last year, 21 fatal accidents were reported on farms, while so far this year there have thankfully been just two, but still two too many. I sincerely hope that this is the start of a positive trend and not just a short-term reduction, as we have seen previously.

The Health and Safety Authority, HSA, under the remit of my colleague the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, has primary responsibility for health and safety in the workplace. The HSA is also the enforcement agency for workplace safety. It carried out 3,000 inspections in the agriculture sector in 2012 and plans to continue with a high level of engagement during 2013. These visits are aimed at advising and educating farmers on the dangers that are ever present in the farm environment.

The Health and Safety Authority is carrying out a farm safety survey, which aims to identify the behaviours farmers engage in while working and the underlying factors influencing them, with a view to making recommendations concerning how best to make farms safer places in which to work and live. The survey questionnaires are being posted to more than 3,000, randomly selected, farm households beginning this week. The survey has been designed by agricultural sector experts and further shaped by interviews with farmers at a number of marts around the country earlier this year.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is represented on the farm safety partnership advisory committee, which is a sub-committee of the Health and Safety Authority. The committee advises the board on the direction the HSA should take on farm safety. The farm safety action plan 2013-2015 follows on from the previous farm safety action plan 2009-2012 and it has been developed in conjunction with the farm safety partnership advisory committee.

I fully support all the measures that are being taken to raise awareness of this serious problem. For the second year running, my Department included a farm safety message with the single payment application packs that were sent to more than 130,000 farmers in March. The leaflet this year focused in particular on the dangers of slurry gases and the safe procedures for handling slurry. That was a joint initiative between the Department, the Health and Safety Authority and the farm safety partnership committee.

It is only one example of co-operation between various agencies to remind farmers of the importance of following safe farm practices and the potentially fatal consequences for them, their families and other farm visitors of lowering their guard.

In November last year, my Department, in conjunction with Teagsac, published a two-page article in the Irish Farmers Journalon how to inspect cattle slats on top of slurry tanks in a safe manner. The article highlighted the importance of regular monitoring of the condition of cattle slats and the safe procedures for entering a slurry tank to undertake such an inspection.

My Department has detailed specifications for the design and construction of all types of slurry stores and these are the minimum standards to which such stores must be constructed. Not only do the specifications deal with the minimum construction standards but they detail the required safety procedures for the construction and safe operation of these stores. The first section of the specifications is about safety. All the specifications are freely available on my Department's website to anyone who is undertaking work on the construction of a slurry store. These specifications are kept under continual review and any developments in safety or construction techniques are incorporated.

Senator Higgins may be aware of the advertisements on television, radio and in the press featuring farmers who have been seriously injured in accidents. They gave an account of their experiences and showed their injuries at first hand. The Health and Safety Authority, which produced the advertisements, has also incorporated the six testimonials in a thought-provoking DVD which is now being used in all training undertaken by the Department. A copy is available to download from the HSA website. This DVD was shown on screens in marts throughout the country in the past year.

There is no one solution to this problem. I am confident all relevant agencies will work with the HSA and the farming representative organisations to continue to tackle the issue.

This is a good time to be a farmer. We are keen to do everything we can to get individual farmers to take care of their safety, their family's safety and the safety of all others on farms, including visitors. If anyone has any ideas I am sure Department officials and staff in Teagasc would be only too willing to accept any simple ideas that could help what is a major problem for the Department and others involved, especially when it comes to the bad news hitting a community or family.