Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 January 2015
245. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide in a tabular form the amount of money spent by the Health and Safety Authority on farm safety initiatives in each year since 2011; the amount of inspections in each year since 2011; his views on the growing number of farm fatalities in 2013 and 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1123/15]
View answerTable of Expenditure on Farm Safety Initiatives 2011 to 2014.
|
Year |
Expenditure * |
|
2011 |
€264,481 |
|
2012 |
€589,870 |
|
2013 |
€449,669 |
|
2014 |
€327,953 |
|
Total |
€1,631,973 |
*The annual figures for expenditure include some cross sectoral initiatives. As some of the advertising initiatives span more than one year, the figure given is an estimate of the expenditure relevant to that year.
Table of HSA Inspection/Investigations in Agriculture 2011 to 2014
|
Year |
No. of Agriculture Inspections or Investigations |
|
2011 |
3,058 |
|
2012 |
3,136 |
|
2013 |
2,748 |
|
2014 |
2,644 ** |
|
Total |
11,586 |
**In 2014 at the request of farm representative groups, and in order to maximise the impact of its available resources, the HSA rolled out a series of farm talks. Resources normally invested in inspection work were assigned to this initiative. Over 50 such talks were held and were attended by over 2,000 farmers.
I am particularly concerned at the high level of farm fatalities and it goes without saying that safety in agriculture will continue to be a high priority for the HSA and for the Government in 2015.
I have addressed this issue on a number of occasions at events such as the Ploughing Championships, the HSA/NISO Conference and, most recently, with my EU level colleagues at the December EU EPSCO Council.
I met with Commissioner Marianne Thyssen in early December and we discussed the increased rate of fatalities on farms and how to strengthen links between mainstream occupational, safety and health (OSH) policies and other EU policies in fields such as agriculture that have a high workplace accident record. I am pleased to see from recent reports that Commissioner Hogan is considering how CAP incentives might be linked to compliance with farm safety practices.
Looking at what we can do nationally, the HSA adopts a broad based partnership approach to maximise its impact across the agriculture sector. To this end the Farm Safety Partnership (FSP) includes among others representatives from all the farming organisations, the Department of Agriculture and Teagasc as well as my own Department. An example of this collaborative approach is the launch in April 2014 by the HSA and Minister Coveney of the "Safe Slurry handling" DVD. This DVD was produced in partnership with Irish Rural Link and this was made possible through a €50k grant payment from my Department to the HSA.
I welcome the new approach to enforcement by the Authority under which it will (on a case by case basis) consider going straight to prosecution on certain matters which involve a very high risk of serious injury or death e.g. unguarded PTO assemblies.
The HSA will also be extending BeSMART – the free online risk assessment and safety statement tool to the agriculture sector in 2016, facilitating easy compliance with requirements and raising awareness of a risk based approach to health and safety.
Finally, the advisory and enforcement activity of the HSA complements the suite of programmes developed by the Department of Agriculture. For example the Farm Safety Scheme which opened in October last year and aims to improve the standard of safety on Irish farms by providing grant-aid for a number of specified investment items.
