Safety plan should reduce number of accidents on farms, says Minister

MACHINERY can be a constant cause of accidents on farms each year, Agriculture and Food Minister Joe Walsh warned yesterday.

In an attempt to reduce the number of farm accidents, the Health and Safety Authority established a Farm Safety Action Group last year.

Their remit was to produce a five-year plan to drastically reduce the number of accidents occurring annually on Irish farms.

Mr Walsh said the plan prepared by this group will be presented to the public in the near future. He hoped farmers would take note of the recommendations in order to reduce the unacceptable level of farm accidents.

Mr Walsh was officially opening the Farm Machinery Show, which continues at Punchestown Exhibition Centre, Co Kildare, today and tomorrow.

The farm machinery industry in Ireland has a turnover of more than €220m and it is estimated more than 3,800 people are employed in the sector. He said the manufacturing sector of the industry accounts for exports of more than 140m annually.

Mr Walsh said some of the innovations in farm machinery last year included the introduction onto the Irish market of the baler-wrapper combination machine.

These machines will benefit farmers and contractors in a number of ways, but especially in the reduction of tractor and labour requirements.

The minister also said that scarcity of labour has become a problem for the industry as a whole in recent times.

The introduction of these machines will also help to reduce soil compaction and emissions into the atmosphere thereby benefiting the environment.

Mr Walsh said tractor sales continued to be buoyant in 2002 due to continuing low interest rates, an increase in the number of part-time farmers with disposable income and a requirement for higher horsepower tractors.

He said he understood the average horsepower of new tractors has risen to 100hp and it may continue to increase as machinery manufactures strive to produce larger and more efficient machines that are increasingly in demand.

The result is that workrates and in many cases, farm output performances, are being achieved that are unrivalled in Europe, he said.