New safety drive bids to cut farm deaths

A major safety drive to cut farm deaths and accidents nationwide was launched today.

The €1.5m advertising campaign will run alongside a training programme for farmers which will be rolled out within months.

Deaths on farms were four times the national average for workplace fatalities in 2006, with 18 people killed. The youngest victim was aged just four-years-old.

Around 3,000 people are also injured on farms across Ireland each year.

The new fully integrated campaign will include sponsorship of the flagship agri television show Ear to the Ground and a hard hitting television, radio, newspaper, billboard and beer mat campaign.

Supporting the new Agriculture Code of Practice, copies of which have been sent to every farmer in the country, the campaign encourages farmers to tackle injury and occupational ill health on farms.

Adhering to the code will save, not only farmers’ lives, but the lives of family members, workers or visitors to the farm, said Minister for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen.

Michael Henry, Acting CEO of the Health and Safety Authority, stressed that the farm safety campaign was the largest and most comprehensive campaign ever mounted in this country.

“This code has been developed in conjunction with farmers and farm bodies, real farmers, not actors, were used in the media and marketing elements of the campaign and the success of the code will lie with farmers themselves, he added.