John Deasy
Question:777. Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of reported human injuries and fatalities caused exclusively by bull attacks on Irish farms over the past decade. [20706/16]
View answerTuesday, 12 July 2016
Questions (777)
Written answers
The Health and Safety Authority is advised of all farm related fatal accidents. Incidents involving livestock were responsible for approximately 13% of all farm fatalities in the past decade.
The following table shows the number of reported injuries and fatalities caused exclusively by bull attacks.
|
Year |
Bull Attack related Injuries Reported |
Bull Attack related Fatalities Reported |
|
2005 |
0 |
1 |
|
2006 |
0 |
1 |
|
2007 |
0 |
1 |
|
2008 |
0 |
0 |
|
2009 |
0 |
0 |
|
2010 |
0 |
1 |
|
2011 |
0 |
1 |
|
2012 |
0 |
0 |
|
2013 |
0 |
1 |
|
2014 |
0 |
0 |
|
2015 |
0 |
2 |
|
2016* (08/07/2016) |
0 |
0 |
In addition to attacks by bulls there are also fatalities caused by attacks by other livestock (including cows and horses). In the same period as outlined in the table above, which shows that 8 fatalities occurred as a result of bull attacks between 2005 and 2015, there were 15 fatalities involving cows and 6 involving horses.
Employers – including the self-employed and farmers – are legally required to notify the Health and Safety Authority when there is an accident at work resulting in an injury that prevents them working for 4 plus days.
It is known that there is significant under-reporting of accidents to the HSA, as is the case in other national employer reporting systems. Recent research on worker injuries reported to the HSA undertaken by the ESRI comparing reporting to the HSA with figures from the CSO for the same period suggests that under-reporting of accidents to the HSA is particularly evident among the self-employed and smaller employers, and is particularly acute in relation to farming.
The HSA has not been notified of any accidents resulting in non-fatal injury involving bulls. The HSA believes this is a reflection of the level of under-reporting of accidents generally. The HSA is aware of such accidents taking place but has no accurate figures relating to the number of incidents in any given year based on the notifications received.
Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority, has conducted a national survey of injuries related to farm work in year 2011. This is the fifth survey conducted at 5-yearly intervals since 1992. The rationale for conducting these surveys has been to estimate injury levels for a range of farm and personal variables and indicate trends in injury levels over time. Based on this survey in 2011 it is estimated that there are approximately 1136 livestock related injuries per annum in farming. Again based on the percentage of livestock fatalities attributable to bulls in the past 10 years (27%), it is possible to provide an estimate only of the number of non-fatal injuries due to bulls at 306.