Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. More important, I commend my colleague, the Leas-Chathaoirleach, Senator Denis O'Donovan, and his team of colleagues who compiled the report. They spent many hours engaged in public consultation and in assessing all the submissions made and considering this important issue of farm safety. Some 30 people lost their lives on farms in 2014 which, as Senator Denis Landy said, was 60% or 65% of the total number of workplace fatalities that year.

I listened to Senator David Norris earlier who said he was shocked to hear that the farm was the most dangerous place in which to work. We would all be shocked, thinking it would be some other area, such as building sites or hard core manufacturing factories and such places. Unfortunately, it is on our farms. The dynamic of the farm is different from any other workplace. Ireland has a tradition of the family farm unit. It is where young children or young adults help out older generations to run family farms and because of the mix of age profiles involved in cutting down costs, it is inevitable that they will face challenges. They are working with dangerous animals such as bulls, which was identified in the report, but most of the accidents appear to be attributed, particularly those in 2014, to tractor fatalities. Out of the 30, approximately 60% or 65% were tractor based accidents.

Machinery on farms is dangerous but it is an essential element of any working farm. The report makes a number of recommendations on upgrading machinery, providing a scrappage grant and the PTO shaft, which those of us who grew up on a farm know is particularly dangerous. More than 30 years ago in the parish where I live, a bailer accident occurred where an unfortunate man who was operating as a small contractor was bailed through one of the small bailers. The result was catastrophic. It destroyed the family emotionally, physically and mentally, and it did the same to the local community. It was a shocking incident but such incidents occur.

There are safety procedures that can be put in place but, unfortunately, they cost money, and many farms do not have the money to invest in newer technologies and machinery, better PTO shafts and better tractors. Some of the accidents, and I am sure the committee examined this, are the result of a lack of available resources to invest in newer technologies. The Minister might outline the initiatives the Department can take to try to support on-farm investment in terms of upgrading machinery and so forth, which has been identified in the report.

Regarding some of the recommendations in the report, Senator O'Donovan mentioned the slight cut in the Health and Safety Authority's budget and the reduced number of HSA inspector visits in 2015. Are there other initiatives in which the Department can be engaged to circumvent the lack of inspections? Does the Minister believe that would have a detrimental impact?

I agree with Senator Landy that this is not all about money. It is about education. I note in the report that awareness building is a key aspect, and there is reference to bringing the GAA on board. There might also be a need to look at the primary school curriculum, given the dynamic in the family farm where there are many young people working on the farm. I grew up on a farm and I remember driving a tractor but I could hardly see over the steering wheel. That may not have been the right thing to do, but it happens on every farm. It may be possible to do something in local rural schools.

New technologies, a scrappage scheme and education are initiatives identified in the report. We would all like to see the implementation of at least some of the recommendations, acknowledging the work of all the farm organisations and the people who made submissions, and acknowledging the work of the committee. I hope the Minister will take a proactive role in trying to work with his officials to implement some of the report's recommendations. I presume my time is up.