John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is becoming repetitious but it still needs to be said. I thank Senator Paul Daly for bringing forward this legislation. The Title, which refers to a farm safety agency, is a critical element of the Bill. While there are businesses and workplaces - even family businesses - where perhaps somebody lives over the shop, with a farm, the person lives in the machine workshop. The person lives where the work goes on, which is the issue. It is a precious thing to arrest people with that idea, namely, that this is not just a place of work but a place where people live. When they run out to the car to get something, they are going into the workshop - the place where the work happens. That is a critical issue.

Senator Reilly and others have spoken about children while others have mentioned older farmers and isolation. It is a mystery as to why there are not more injuries and fatalities. There are many elements that conspire to make this an important and focused piece of legislation. I come from rural Ireland. I grew up on a pig farm but that was not exciting enough for me. All the farms around me were dairy farms, which was where the action was, but none of them had tractors at that time. Taking out the pony and horse and bringing in machinery was fuelled by the EU, although I am not blaming it. Getting into the EU, getting fertilisers on farms, improving production, speeding things up and farmers being able to get credit and buy a little Mickey Mouse tractor for the first time along with a milking machine, are great things that have put us right up there in terms of our exports and our reputation as an exporting nation. For the first few years of the recession, the only good story in this country involved our farming exports. We were on our knees and everything had gone wallop. I make that emotional appeal and statement that farming has served this country well. It was the only thing we had going for us during those first few years to give us a chance to recover.

I had my own experience of walking across a covered slurry pit but I stood on a sheet of galvanised material that was covering it up. I did not know this at the time - I am not that stupid - but I stood on the sheet of galvanised material, which was lovely and shiny on the outside but was totally corroded underneath. Only for the fact that I threw myself forward, they would be looking for me. I am thinking of a lovely nephew of mine who is crazy about farming. He is 12 and would be good at it. As a young man, his grandfather, who only died seven or eight years ago, was mangled with a power take-off, PTO, shaft. He survived and much of it was down to his youth and fitness. Another ten years later, it might have been different. We all have those stories. We cannot easily keep children from wanting to be active and out and about.

It is important for us to struggle with this issue. It is great that it has come into this House, which has a better tradition of talking things through and hearing what other folk are saying, first. I emphasise the Title and branding of this Bill, which focuses on farming being a black spot when it comes to safety. As mothers, daughters and wives, it is women who are more involved in farming than they would have been in the past, who worry every day and every night when the lads are out, be it in winter or summer, day or night. We owe it to them to give them a bit more peace of mind by improving safety. Senator Marshall spoke about changing the culture and mindset and that was very much around the women on the farms.

I am delighted the Government is supporting this Bill. I heard very positively what Senator Paul Daly said. It may not end up the way it started. That is not the point. The point is that we get into this, have it over and back and get a piece of legislation that will serve rural Ireland. At the start, Senator Paul Daly said that an accident can bring down a parish. These kinds of things do bring parishes down so it is not just about a person or family. It is a community thing.