Brendan Kenneally (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Question 264: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the number of farm based accidents to have occurred in the last year on a county basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28849/10]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I am deeply concerned with the level of safety on our farms and I fully support the work of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), which is the national body in Ireland with responsibility for securing health and safety at work. The HSA is also responsible for the collecting and recording of workplace accident data.

The most recent CSO estimate for accidents in the agricultural, forestry and fishing sectors is for 2008. For that year the CSO estimate that there were approximately 1,900 accidents in these sectors. These figures are not broken down on a per county basis.

Provisional figures for 2010 indicate that this year 14 people have already died as a result of accidents on Irish farms. Half of these fatalities occurred in the Cork, Kerry and Clare region with the remainder mainly in Midland counties and counties on the East Coast.

I strongly support the HSA and Farm Safety Partnership's Farm Safety Action Plan 2009 – 2012. The Farm Safety Action Plan identifies 7 goals to prevent farm accidents and fatalities. It also contains the commitments given to farm health and safety by different organisations including the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.