More than 90 per cent of farmers have failed to put a farm safety statement in place despite being required to do so by law, the chief executive of the Health and Safety Authority, Mr Tom Beegan, said yesterday.
Speaking at the launch of the organisation's €250,000 publicity campaign to prevent farm accidents, he said: "There is a legal obligation on farmers to supply safety statements for their farms since 1989, but we estimate the only 10-14 per cent of farmers are complying."
He said attempts to link farm safety requirements to payments from Brussels had failed at the end of negotiations in Brussels.
"Sixteen deaths have happened on Irish farms so far this year, and that is an increase which includes two children. We have set ourselves the task of cutting annual fatalities on farms by half over the next three years and eliminating child deaths," he said.
Over the past 10 years, Mr Beegan said, there had been 200 farm fatalities and these included 43 children. In all, there had been 630 fatalities in the decade in all employment sectors but agriculture and construction accounted for 50 per cent of all deaths.
He said that children on farms appeared to be at the greatest risk in what was a very unique environment where the workplace was very frequently the home.
Television advertisements will form part of a new awareness and information campaign and will be aimed at encouraging farmers to prioritise health and safety standards on their farms.
Asked why there was such a low rate of compliance with the legal requirement to provide a safety statement, Mr Beegan said he was unsure because farms were quite heavily inspected by the authority.
"There were 1,000 inspections last year and where farmers were served with notices to comply, they do so readily," he added.
The HSA is to post a self-assessment farm safety document to every farm in the State.