Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 461: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the current regulations for health and safety on farms; her plans for review or update in view of the number of deaths on farms; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31864/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 all employers are required to prepare or have prepared a safety statement that specifies how the safety health and welfare of employees is to be managed. The safety statement must be based on the identification of the hazards as well as the risk assessment for the place of work, that is, the farm.

The Act also provides in section 60 that the Health and Safety Authority, HSA, "may, and shall if so requested by the Minister [for Enterprise, Trade and Employment] prepare and publish [Health and Safety Authority] Codes of Practice" relating to employers with three or fewer employees and these codes of practice will be sufficient to meet the general duty to prepare a safety statement, referred to above. The HSA is actively involved in the preparation of a code of practice for the agricultural sector. I welcome this approach and will continue to support all actions aimed at preventing accidents on farms.

All farmers have received a HSA document, Farm Safety Self Assessment for family farms and self employed farmers, on the basis that the completed document should be kept on the farm.