Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Creed, to the Chamber. It is great to see him here. He comes from the heartland of the dairy industry in Macroom. He has a great knowledge of the industry and I am sure he will be an excellent Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I am interested in and look forward to working with him over the next few months and years. The Minister and his colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Pat Breen, have a shared brief on this issue to a degree. It is a very important issue for the agriculture industry but also for rural Ireland itself. Unfortunately, every one of us in the room knows of a person in our parish who was, unfortunately, affected by a farm accident. It might not have been a fatal farm accident but it was a farm accident. It scars the community. Unfortunately, rural communities deal with this issue on a yearly basis. Farm safety awareness week is an important one in the agricultural calendar and, as politicians and members of the agriculture community, we must make it one of the most important weeks of the year. It is key for us as an industry and a community that we engage with stakeholders to improve our workplaces.

Farming has changed from what it was in my father's time to what it is now. Units have got bigger and one is out there by oneself. In many ways, the most significant safety device on the farm is one's mobile phone. When one runs into an issue, it gives one the opportunity to contact someone. That is where the industry has gone. Before if one was milking 70 cows, one probably had a man to assist. Now, one is milking 100 cows by oneself while dealing with all of the attendant stress and workload. One is in the workplace for 14 hours a day by oneself. One could be in a situation for a long time with no one else being there. It is important as an industry that we change. One of the most frightening figures was mentioned by Senator Maria Byrne and it is that 24 children have been killed in a nine-year period. That is an unfortunate issue and a terrible scar for communities. We have all heard of incidents like that in our own counties over the last number of years. How we deal with that will be key. Education is key. Young farmers who are fathers must realise that there is probably no place for a child on a tractor. Realistically, it is a workplace. Would one take one's child out to Novartis or Pfizer? I think the answer is "No".

Realistically, we must look at where we are as farmers and what we do. There is probably a change in mindset that we have to take on board. Until we, as farmers and legislators, take that on board, the figures will not, unfortunately, change. It is up to us in the industry to make that major move. When one looks at us as an industry, we put everything on the long finger. As we know, we are experiencing cashflow issues and things like farm safety will be pushed back further and further. They will not be seen as a priority. Under TAMS II, there is a farm safety aspect and it is important that the works which have been improved by the Department are actually delivered and not just put back because of cashflow issues. That is a real fact when one talks to farmers. They are saying they might do it next year but can they wait?Can they allow farm safety requirements not to be addressed on their farms? If they do not address them, who knows what could happen? These issues are important for farmers and the community generally.

I hope the initiatives outlined by the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Breen, and the promotion, in particular, of Farm Safety Week will help to bring about change. The Teagasc-run event held in County Meath yesterday was a fantastic success. There will be an event every day during Farm Safety Week. I hope we can break down the barriers and that people will take the farm safety message on board and make the changes required on farms.

On the unfortunate loss of children's lives in farm accidents, there is a need for a change of mindset among farmers. A farm is a workplace. It is not the place for a farmer to have his little boy or girl on a tractor or milking cows with him or her. We should not promote such behaviour. If anything, we should say a farm is not the location for such behaviour and that farmers should not do this.