Meath Co Chairman Diarmuid Lally, Ms. Marie Hughes IFA Farm Family Committee, Ms. Sheila Fitzpatrick Chairperson IFA Farm Family Committee and Mr Bert Stewart IFA Ulster North Leinster Chairman

Today is national farm safety awareness day

Noelle Finegan

Published: Tue 21 Jul 2015, 2:53 PM

Last updated: Tue 21 Jul 2015, 4:02 PM

Today marks National Farm Safety Awareness Day and the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is asking all farm families to take action to make their farm a safer place to live and work.
IFA President, Eddie Downey said today that the reaction from farm families to National Farm Safety Awareness Day, and particularly to the Farm Safety Risk Assessment planner, shows a commitment to changing safety behaviour on Irish farms and making safety a top priority.
“I am delighted that farm families have accepted the call to action and are using the Farm Safety Risk Assessment planner to review safety on their farms. I would urge farmers to complete the Farm Safety Risk Assessment planner today and keep it to show that you have reviewed safety on your farm”, said Mr Downey.
National Farm Safety Awareness Day is a call to action for farm families to use the Farm Safety Risk Assessment planner to assess the safety risks on farms and put in place control measures to reduce the risk of accidents.
The National Farm Safety Awareness Day is part of the IFA’s ongoing ‘SAVE LIVES, Think Safety, Farm Safely’ campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of working on a farm and encourage farmers to change working practices to reduce risks.
IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chairperson, Maura Canning encouraged the whole family to get involved on National Farm Safety Awareness Day to review safety on the farm.
She said that National Farm Safety Awareness Day provides an ideal opportunity to make young people aware of the potential risks and to bring about real change in behaviour to safety.
IFA, with the support of the FBD Champions for Changes campaign, produced an easy to use Farm Safety Risk Assessment planner to support farm families to review safety on their farm on National Farm Safety Awareness Day.

Local Fine Gael councillor Joe Fox has welcomed the IFA’s National Farm Safety Awareness Day and is calling on farmers to put farm safety at the top of their agenda.
He said: “In 2014, 30 people lost their lives in farm related incidents. This constitutes the largest proportion of work place deaths. It is essential that farmers don’t cut any corners with regards to safety on their farms.
“It is particularly important to focus on farm safety during this time when children and more inexperienced people tend to be on the farm and helping out. There have been 22 fatal farm accidents involving children over the past decade and nearly half of these involved children under the age of seven years.”
Cllr Fox added that the Farm Safety Scheme has been being rolled out across the country this year and over 3,100 farmers have been granted approval to commence work to make safety improvements on their farm, under this scheme.
He said a total of €12.2m has been allocated to the scheme offering a 40 per cent rate of aid, up to a maximum eligible investment ceiling of €20,000.