Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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481. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in view of the increasing amount of farm accidents this year, his views on whether a new campaign highlighting the need for increased farm safety measures should be put in place and to heighten the awareness of how easy it is for accidents to happen on family farms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37752/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Health and Safety Authority (HSA), is the national statutory body with responsibility for enforcing occupational safety and health law, promoting and encouraging accident prevention, and providing information and advice to all companies, organisations and individuals, including farmers. The HSA has focused on health and safety in the agriculture sector over many years and continues to do so.

Last year I approved the HSA's 2013 Programme of Work, which was prepared against a background of unacceptably high levels of work-related deaths and injuries in the agriculture sector. The Programme acknowledged that while progress has been made in agriculture by bringing stakeholders together and by developing action plans where everyone has a role to play, it was not enough and thus provided for a HSA led campaign of awareness raising around specific risks along with identified priority actions for the sector. Out of the 12,850 planned workplace inspections and investigations for 2013, 3,000 will be carried out in the high risk agriculture sector.

The HSA has continued its practice of emphasising the importance of workplace health and safety in the agriculture sector. In this regard, in April this year, in line with the Programme of Work, a two-week farm safety campaign with a focus on joint involvement with farmer representative organisations was carried out. The campaign included actions such as farm walks and talks, with a particular focus on farmers in the 60+ age group. This age-group was focused upon as over half the people killed over the last decade in agriculture were in this age-group. In an effort to focus attention on age as a risk factor, the HSA and the IFA have jointly produced a DVD entitled 'Older, Wiser, Safer - A Practical Guide to Safety for Older Farmers.'

The HSA has also used the partnership approach to improving farm safety. This approach involves engaging with the major stakeholders in the agriculture sector in the task of improving farm safety through the Farm Safety Partnership Advisory Committee - a sub-committee of the Board of the HSA. This approach is designed to better support the identification and development of broad based actions by the primary stakeholders to assist in developing and sustaining a safety and health culture within the sector. It seeks to emulate the approach that has worked well in the construction sector.

An important element of achieving improved farm safety outcomes is the recently published three-year (2013-15) Action Plan for the Farm Safety Partnership. This plan aims to deliver coordinated initiatives on awareness raising, safety promotion, research and special projects. In response to the serious challenges faced in agriculture, the HSA has introduced a number of initiatives including:

- On-line farm risk assessment tool .

- A Code of Practice for Agriculture which includes a Risk Assessment Document and a Safe System of Work Plan (SWWP). The Code provides practical user-friendly guidance with respect to farmers, family members, employees, service providers, advisers, trainers and persons with a role related to safety and health. It sets out clearly the major risks in farming and provides a simple approach through the risk assessment document to managing safety at farm level.

- An extensive media campaign on national TV, national & local radio and in the print media.

In 2012, the HSA has carried out an integrated farm safety media campaign, which included graphic TV advertisements, and hard-hitting radio and print advertisements, all with a strong focus on the shocking consequences of farm accidents for real farmers. The aim of this element of the HSA's campaign was to drive home the terrible consequences that result from accidents in the agriculture sector.

Early this year, a very hard-hitting radio advertisement involving the effects of power-take- off (PTO) entanglement, previously aired in 2012, was again featured on National and local radio and will be aired again coming up to the impending National Ploughing Championships (24th - 26th September), at which the HSA, with assistance from the Farm Safety Partnership Advisory Committee will have a very visible presence, where it will host a major farm safety stand featuring both external active demonstrations of tractor and quad bike safety and internal demonstrations on a wide range of guidance and information available from the HSA.. Associated HSA sponsored radio and print advertisements highlighting the importance of farm safety are in place from 16^th September until after the Championships.

Particularly due to the number of child fatalities so far this year on Irish farms (3), the HSA has placed a Child Safety advertisement again in the Irish Farmers Journal and National and local press, to be aired before and during the Ploughing Championships. This advertisement, which won Gold in the Irish Print Advertisements Kinsale Sharks Awards for 2013 will also feature on National Ploughing Championships mobile boards.

In addition, “Survivor Stories” DVDs, all with a strong focus on the shocking consequences of farm accidents for real farmers, have been widely distributed to all farming organisations for showing at meetings of their members. The HSA hopes for more use of these DVDs and other guidance material in the coming months. Similarly, images and stories of other serious accidents were shown before and after the “Ear to the Ground” television programme.

The HSA has 20 Inspectors who carry out proactive inspection work in the agriculture sector including 5 full time specialists in the Agriculture Inspection Group. The level of awareness among farmers in relation to their duty to ensure a safe farm - based on inspection - is now estimated at 80%. It continues to be the experience of the Inspectors that while the standard of the individual Safety Statement/Code of Practice is, in general, adequate to control the risks on the farm, the implementation of the identified controls and allocation of resources required is lower.

In July this year, the HSA commenced a 'Farm Safety Survey' of 3,000 randomly selected, farm households. The overall aim of the proposed research is to identify the factors most likely to influence farmers in Ireland to make long-term behavioural changes with regard to their daily farm work, to improve knowledge of methods of farm accident prevention, to inform future HSA preventive activity and to make recommendations concerning how best to make farms safer places to work and live.

Ultimately, day-to-day responsibility for workplace safety rests with those in the workplace in the first instance. In that context, it is important that we continue to maintain a strong focus on workplace safety as safe workplaces can ultimately only be delivered by those who control and work in them. Agriculture, by its very nature, is one of the more hazardous occupations, especially as the workplace and family home are so often one-and-the-same. In such circumstances, I would urge all involved in the agriculture sector to re-double their efforts to improve health and safety standards in their sector.