Farm deaths spark safety campaign

THE loss of 17 lives on Irish farms so far this year has sparked the biggestever Government agriculture safety campaign.

Every farmer in the country will receive a safety pack in a bid to lower thehigh death rate which is running at more than one a month on Irish farms.

More than 160,000 packs containing the new Agriculture Code of Practice will be dispatched to farmers nationwide.

The packs will be sent at a cost of over €1.5 million.

Tom Beegan, chief executive of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), urgedfarmers 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 10 people aged 65 or over. Out of those 10 only two were aged less than 70.

The HSA, which presented a copy of the safety pack to the president of theIrish 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 withnine people killed.

It is also estimated that 3,000 injuries occur on farms each year.