Agriculture safety campaign launched

The Government has begun a major agriculture safety campaign after it was revealed 17 people have died in farming accidents this year.

Every farmer in the State will receive a safety pack in a bid to lower the death rate.

Over 160,000 packs containing the new Agriculture Code of Practice will be dispatched to farmers nationwide at a cost of over €1.5 million.

Tom Beegan, chief executive of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), urged farmers to use the pack to ensure safety is an integral aspect of the farm operation.

"It is not just farmers who are dying but their children and elderly relatives, this pack offers a practical means of stopping the ongoing tragedy of farm fatality and injury," Mr Beegan said.

So far this year 17 people have been killed on Irish farms. One child under four years of age died and eight people aged 70 or over.

The HSA, which presented a copy of the safety pack to the president of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) Padraig Walshe, confirmed more people have died in agriculture this year than in any other sector.

The only sector approaching a similarly high death rate was construction with nine people killed. It is also estimated that 3,000 injuries occur on farms each year.

The HSA said every farmer in the country will receive a safety pack along with a copy of the authority's Farm Safety DVD.

Mr Beegan said both the code and pack had been developed in conjunction with farmers with a view to reducing the serious levels of farm deaths and injury.

The pack contains the new Code of Practice for Preventing Injury and Occupational Ill Health in Agriculture, risk assessment documents and copies of a farm safe system of work plan.