Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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123. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of farm safety inspectors employed by the HSA; and the number of new inspectors who have been hired in 2017 and to date in 2018 for farm safety. [46454/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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There are currently 24 field inspectors who have been involved in farm safety inspections and campaigns throughout 2018.

In 2017 the HSA undertook a recruitment campaign for 11 Inspector posts, 6 of which were for field inspection posts. These 6 Inspectors have been involved in farm inspection campaigns during 2018 thereby helping to ensure that farm inspection targets and farm safety campaign targets are being achieved. These new inspectors were in addition to the existing cohort of 18 inspectors involved in farm inspections and farm safety campaigns.

In 2018, to date, the HSA has recruited 5 new field inspector posts of which 4 have now been filled. It is intended that 3 of these new inspector posts will be assigned to general inspection activities during 2019 which will include farm inspection and farm safety promotion campaigns.