Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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71. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will report on the work of his Department individually or in conjunction with other Departments in addressing the mental health of farmers and persons working in the agri-food sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60635/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you Deputy for addressing this very important topic. My Department is co-funding, with the HSE and the Department of Health, a farmers physical and mental health awareness programme: Engage Unit 8 ‘On Feirm Ground’. The programme developed a Train the Trainer programme that is currently being delivered nationally to those employed as farmer advisors. It is providing training for agricultural advisors to engage with and signpost farmers to supports in relation to health and wellbeing. To date over 100 agricultural advisors have been trained.

Additionally, of the eight farm safety European Innovation Partnerships (EIP’s) projects there were approved in July of this year, to the value of €1.8m, four are focused around mental health of people in the farming community. These projects are now in the implementation phase and I am looking forward to seeing positive impacts from all of the projects around farm safety.