Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 July 2013
259. Deputy Tom Fleming asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the measures taken to improve farm safety and reduce the number of farm accidents throughout the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33379/13]
View answerThe 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 Authority’s 2013 Programme of Work, approved by me earlier this year, was prepared against a background of the unacceptably high levels of work-related deaths and injuries in the agriculture sector and priority actions for the sector were identified in the Programme. For example, out of the 12,850 planned workplace inspections and investigations for 2013, 3,000 will be carried out in the high risk agriculture sector.
To emphasise the importance of workplace health and safety in the agriculture sector, in April this year, the Authority carried out a two-week farm safety campaign with a focus on joint involvement with farmer representative organisations. The campaign included actions such as farm walks and talks, with a particular emphasis on farmers in the 60+ age group. This age-group received particular attention as over half the 182 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 Authority and the IFA have jointly produced a DVD entitled ‘Older, Wiser, Safer – A Practical Guide to Safety for Older Farmers.’
Partnership remains central to the Authority’s approach to improving farm safety. This approach involves 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 Authority. 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 will be the soon-to-be-published three-year (2013-15) Action Plan for the Farm Safety Partnership. This plan will aim to deliver coordinated initiatives on awareness raising, safety promotion, research and special projects. The Plan’s key goals are:
- To establish and implement appropriate Safety and Health Training and Educational programmes for farmers and persons who are employed in the agriculture sector.
- To develop programmes to prevent accidents and injuries to vulnerable persons (children and older persons) in agriculture.
- To achieve cultural and behavioural changes related to risk taking in agriculture.
- To influence farmers to manage high risk work activities and to improve standards in the use and maintenance of Tractors, Machinery and Farm Vehicles.
- To implement programmes to assist in protecting the occupational health of persons working in agriculture.
The Farm Safety Committee’s previous 2009-2012 Action Plan set ambitious targets in health and safety and identified specific activities to achieve these targets and much was achieved during the course of this plan. In response to the serious challenges faced in agriculture, the Authority responded comprehensively with a number of initiatives including:
- On-line farm risk assessment tool www.farmsafely.com .
- 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 Authority pursued an integrated farm safety media campaign, which included graphic TV advertisements, and hard-hitting radio and print ads, all with a strong focus on the shocking consequences of farm accidents for real farmers. The aim of this element of the Authority’s campaign was to drive home the terrible consequences that result from accidents in the agriculture sector.
The Authority 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 Health and Safety Authority 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.
The Authority has, this week, 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 Authority 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 all 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.
