Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. As others have said, agriculture as a whole is important. This has always been the case and I am sure that in the next number of years this Government will prioritise agriculture. I come from a farming background and there is always a view within farming that any time the country has hit a crisis, it is always the agricultural industry that has got it through. The past ten years have been no different, with the agrifood industry getting the country back flourishing.

I welcome what colleagues have said about farm safety and I compliment the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, since taking that role in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. He has really hit the ground running and the work he is doing promoting farm safety is very important. There are a number of organisations around the country, particularly Embrace FARM, which have done phenomenal work highlighting the dangers of working on a farm. I know from my early years working on a tillage farm every summer the dangers that come with the work because of big machinery like tractors and combine harvesters. We know the daily dangers that come with the work and we can never highlight those enough. The Government's work, and certainly that of the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, in highlighting farm safety, is very important.

It is noteworthy that, during the passage of the Bill, there was the introduction of an accelerated capital gains allowance for farm safety equipment, with a particular emphasis on supporting those who have suffered life-changing injuries as a result of incidents on farms. This underlines the priority afforded to the farm safety issue in this Government's programme.

Section 17 refers to the schedule detailing equipment type, including hydraulic linkage arms mounted tractor jacking systems, and these are to be included in the new section 285D of the principal Act. Much has been put into this measure to support farm safety through the Finance Bill, so it is really important that we welcome it, promote it and talk about it as much as we can.