I thank the committee for the opportunity to discuss farm safety. I am joined by my colleague, Mr. Pat Griffin, senior inspector.
The Health and Safety Authority was established in 1989 and our primary role is set out in the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. We provide information, advice, guidance and enforcement. We have inspectors in a range of activities and we provide advisory information, working with the key stakeholders.
The Minister of State referred to the farm safety partnership advisory committee. This was established in 2002 and is building on the model that had previously operated in the construction sector which, during the 1990s, was the single highest risk activity in the economy. Through collaborative working with the key stakeholders, it was possible to achieve enormous progress, and that model is being adopted here.
The farm safety partnership has participation from all of the key stakeholder groups, the farming representative organisations, farming media and the insurance industry. It has a seven goal action plan which is the key driver for the work being done in the sector. It is complemented by the direct work of the authority, where we provide guidance and advice and we regularly publish sector and issue specific guidance to the industry. Typically, we have 300 publications, with 400,000 downloads by industry, showing that it values the information we give out.
We carry out 18,000 inspections per annum, with 1,700 of those in the agriculture sector this year. Next year we plan to increase the inspection level to 3,000. Our general principle on inspection is that we try to take an advisory approach. About 30% of inspections are to give advice, encouragement and support, pointing out the correct practices to achieve safety. About 40% give written advice and in 12% of cases, the situation is so serious it requires the inspector to issue formal enforcement actions under the provisions of the 2005 Act.
As the Minister of State mentioned, there were 43 fatalities in 2009, down from 75 in 2005. It is important to give comparative analysis but that does not do justice to the fact that all of these are tragedies. Accidents resulting in death leave an impact on families that our inspectors see every day. Each year, 7,000 accidents are reported to us where people had an accident at work that resulted in an absence from work of four or more days. We tend to get around 100 reported accidents in the agriculture sector but we know from comparative analysis with the CSO and some medical sources that there is a significant level of underreporting. Our colleague from Teagasc will probably give more information on it but we believe that, at a peak, the actual number would be up to 3,000. Progress has been achieved and the number is probably 1,800 at present.
There are probably some misconceptions about health and safety and some people consider it is a burden. Given that 7,000 people were injured and more than 40 were killed it is a very serious matter. It is very difficult to put an economic cost on this. A number of independent analysts have suggested the economic cost of the failures. It is strange that we tend to measure success in safety by counting our failures. There are other things we do, for example, we measure awareness. It is estimated that the cost to the economy could be up to €3.8 billion or in excess of 2% of GNP. In economic as well as human terms, it is a very serious consideration. In many cases, particularly in agriculture, there is a dominant trend of the fatalities being male, often the breadwinner, resulting in serious economic distress to the family. That is the negative picture.
In 2006 we prepared a code of practice under the provisions of the 2005 Act. Where there are less than three people employed the authority can issue a code of practice. We did that in 2006 for agriculture. The code of practice was sent to 120,000 farm families. In 2009 the code was updated to an electronic version so that farmers have the choice either to use the paper version or the electronic version on-line. The uptake on the electronic version has been quite encouraging.
The stark reality, despite the progress made, is that there is a ten times greater probability of being killed in a workplace accident, if one works on a farm, than in the general economy. Some 6% of the working population incur approximately 60% of the fatalities.
The Minister of State mentioned the farm safety partnership advisory committee and the action plan which has seven goals. The goals are progressing and are owned by the various participants such as the Health and Safety Authority, Teagasc and the IFA. As the Minister of State said we are pleased that since the meetings earlier in the year, we have seen positive and encouraging engagement given that the farm representative bodies are very persuasive among the farming community. An initiative that has recently been agreed is that our inspectors will meet with all the county committees of agriculture and the IFA in the coming months to explain the issues we are facing. As the Minister of State said, the major causes of fatalities are machinery, slurry pits, livestock and electricity. When our inspectors go out and examine the circumstances they find that, almost without exception - we may have seen one case that was difficult to foresee - every one of these accidents are foreseeable, avoidable and preventable and could save much tragedy to the farming community.
As well as the safety code of practice, we issue guidance on the use of tractors on farms, child safety on farms, working with timber and chainsaws, and working near power lines. We distribute these guidelines widely as well as working with the key partners. I will stop at this point but my colleague and I would be pleased to deal with any specific queries the committee may have and elaborate further.