Jim O'Keeffe
Question:80 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of deaths by accident on farms for each of the past three years; and if he has proposals to reduce them. [3885/03]
Written Answers. - Farm Safety.
According to statistics available from the Health and Safety Authority the following are details of the number of deaths by accident on farms in the past three years
This situation is a matter of concern.
Year Number of deaths (Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry)
|
2002 |
13 |
|
2001 |
24 |
|
2000 |
16 |
In February 2002 the "Farm Safety Action Group" representative of a wide range of organisations was established by the Health and Safety Authority. The role of this group is to progress the matter of farm safety and specifically: To identify and prioritise the key issues related to improving safety on farms; to detail the actions necessary to deal with the issues identified; to develop a national action programme, co-ordinating the actions of the representative organisations and assigning tasks; to publicise, effect and monitor the programme; to carry out appropriate research and liaise with relevant agriculture organisations; and to report regularly, and formally at least quarterly, to the board of the authority; the action plan is being finalised at present and will be published this spring.