Another bid to end horror of ‘killing fields’
KEEPING children safe on the farm will be the central theme of the message being sent out to farmers this week by the Dept. of Agriculture along with their Single Farm Payment farm maps.
The Department, in conjunction with the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), are this year again highlighting that farming continues to be the most dangerous occupation in Ireland with an average of 20 fatalities per year over the past four years.
In the 10 year period between 2,000 and 2010, a staggering 27 children have lost their lives on Irish farms – in 2013, four children lost their lives in farm accidents.
Agriculture Minister, Simon Coveney, said that while a farmyard may look like a playground in the eyes of a child, the fact of the matter was that children couldn’t be expected to anticipate the dangers of playing there.
“For example, carrying children as passengers in large machinery is taking a serious risk because tractors and machinery have been responsible for half of all farming fatalities in Ireland over the past 10 years,” said Minister Coveney.
He said that each year, the Health & Safety Authority (HSA) conducted work place safety inspections – this year it would be focusing its inspections on high risk sectors with a target of 2,900 farm inspections for agriculture alone.
A top priority for the HSA and the Department was to reduce the numbers killed and injured concentrating on such areas as tractor and machinery safety, animal handling, slurry handling and child and elderly safety, said Minister Coveney.
He said that chainsaw safety would also addressed in forestry inspections while the HSA also planned to engage with marts and co-ops on a monthly basis to drive messages on critical safety issues home to farmers.
“Farmers have nothing to fear from HSA-led farm safety inspections. The benefits of working safely are immeasurable. In contrast, the cost of a serious farm accident, or worse a fatality, is a price too high for any farming family,” said Simon Coveney.
Galway IFA Chairman, Michael Flynn, said that farmers just had to put safety on top of the agenda given the number of people who had died or who had suffered serious injury over recent years.
“Farm deaths and injuries have caused untold heartbreak with farm families all across the country – the really sad thing about all of this is that many of those accidents could have been prevented.
“We now have to look forward and put in place the basic common sense steps that literally can make the difference between life and death,” said Michael Flynn.