Fischler to shelve farm safety inspections from CAP reform
The 2002 total of 12 fatalities has almost been reached this year with 11 deaths recorded, so far, on farms.
Thousands of non-fatal accidents also incur in farming.
In the last decade, alone, 43 children died on farms. However, as part of a compromise document on CAP, Commissioner Franz Fischler has agreed to on-farm safety inspections being dropped.
The Health and Safety Authority in Ireland yesterday expressed concern at the decision to exclude health and safety proposals from the compromise deal. Chief executive Tom Beegan said: “The original proposals for the CAP’s mid-term review were heralded as a significant leap forward from the point of view of developing health and safety practices within the EU and the accession states. The decision to roll back on this at the 11th-hour is devastating. The HSA is endeavouring, through co-operation with our European counterparts, to prioritise health and safety in agriculture, as it is one of the most treacherous industrial sectors across Europe.”
Statistics show that, over the last 10 years, there were 200 farm fatalities in Ireland. The death rate on farms was about one-third of all tragedies across the employment sectors.
According to the Central Statistics Office, more than 4,200 people suffered injuries in the farm sector last year. Mr Beegan said the HSA’s health and safety task was made increasingly difficult when crucial opportunities to impose serious requirements on the farm sector are compromised.
“The farm is the only workplace where large numbers of children consistently lose their lives on an annual basis,” he said. “Accidents on farms result in an immense level of human suffering. Farmers must be made acutely aware that this carnage has to stop.”
Mr Beegan suggested that economic pressures often influence the level of willingness to introduce safety precautions on farms.
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