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Farm safety initiatives

Last month, Minister of State with responsibility for farm safety, Martin Heydon, launched a new Agri Aware initiative, the Safe Farm Futures, which will be available to primary schools across the country and aims to educate and raise awareness of the importance of keeping safe on farms.
Agri Aware chair, Shay Galvin at the launch of Agri Aware's new Farm Safety programme, Safe Farm Futures.

In 2003, 16 deaths occurred in the farming sector and already, sadly, another fatality was recorded last month. The programme has separate plans for junior and senior level primary school children, and comprises of three learning-plan topics that teachers and their students will engage with. All three topics will be accompanied by a suite of resources including activity lesson plans, webinars and activity sheets. Getting the safety message out to young people who then carry it home is recognised as highly effective. Farm accidents and fatalities are a terrible trauma for families and communities affected and Agri Aware’s initiative is welcome and timely. 
Recently, we heard the Health and Safety Authority raise awareness through radio adverts and other media outlets around the dangers associated with animal handling on farms, especially around calving time. It, too, was a timely intervention and, in association with a series of farm inspections to highlight danger points, should help to reduce the inherent dangers of farming-related activities. A recent two-week farm safety inspection campaign focussed on the safe management of livestock during calving season when the risk of injury to farmers increases significantly. In the last five years, 80 people lost their lives in farm-related work and 18 of these involved working with livestock. 

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