Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and congratulate him on his long overdue promotion. He has been a very good political mentor to me and for that I am grateful. It is appropriate for him to be here during national farm safety week because too many people have lost their lives in this country as a result of farm accidents. I note that my constituency colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Breen, has direct responsibility for the Health and Safety Authority. However, I believe that this Minister and his Department have significant responsibilities when it comes to health and safety and I know that he will agree with my analysis in that regard.

This House, under the stewardship of the Cathaoirleach and the Seanad Public Consultation Committee, initiated a report on farm safety of which I was fortunate to be the rapporteur. The report gained quite an amount of public coverage at the time in the media at national and local level. One day I proposed, during the Order of Business, that the SPCC should carry out a report on farm safety following a number of tragic accidents in my constituency of County Clare. We advertised for public submissions and received numerous submissions. On one Monday in March 2015, we took over the Seanad Chamber. On that occasion we had positive interaction with people who had great ideas on what could be done to help reduce the number of farm accidents. We heard from people who had suffered farm accidents but survived them. We heard from families of people who, unfortunately, did not survive. We heard from the farming organisations. We heard from a 16-year old young man, Mr. Duffy, who invented a farm safety game. We also heard from a GAA club in west Cork that ran successful awareness campaigns as part of its reaction and response to a tragic farm accident that occurred in their area.

I believe that farm safety awareness has increased significantly and that we have reduced the number of lives lost as a result of farm accidents. At this stage, I offer my condolences to the families of the eight people who have lost their lives this year so far. The tragedies must be very raw and difficult for the bereaved. No words spoken here can compensate them for their loss but we have a responsibility to do what we can.

I welcome the significant involvement by farm organisations in this area. The ICSA has made some very good suggestions. A VAT refund for equipment that is deemed necessary from a safety perspective is a logical and prudent suggestion. The proposal should be considered in terms of the next budget in October. The proposals that emanated from the farm safety report produced in this House are worthy of consideration. One of our recommendations, in particular, was very powerful. I refer to the call for the Department to sponsor the provision of a farm safety officer in the GAA headquarters to ensure farm safety training and events are held in GAA clubs located in rural Ireland. The GAA is a national organisation that has a presence in every community and parish in the country. We recommended that the Department and the GAA would work in partnership and use the GAA's good offices to help improve farm safety. I ask the Minister to update the House on the discussions that have taken place with the GAA in regard to that recommendation. Ultimately, responsibility for safety lies with everybody.

I note the Minister's comments on educating young people.As the Cathaoirleach knows well, people from schools in various parts of the country contacted us following our farm safety report. I highlight a school in Mayo which wrote its own farm safety report. There were initiatives such as the books like the good lady in Meath wrote in the language of small children that were distributed - I think there were a number of publications. They were absolutely super because if young people are educated they have a funny way of educating older people.

We are at the start of this. The objective of us all is to have no farm accidents. We really need to keep the pressure on to reduce the number of people who lose their lives or receive lifelong injuries as a result of farm accidents.