FARMERS WHO fail to take legally-binding actions to prevent themselves and their families from being killed on their farms may lose grants and face prosecutions.
Minister for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary signalled a stricter approach at the weekend in Co Mayo, where he said he had always favoured “the carrot rather than the stick approach”.
“But now we have 11 farm deaths, the same as in the whole of last year, and our whole culture will have to change.
“When the current review going on into the issue is concluded we may have to consider much stricter action against those failing to comply with the law,” he said.
The Minister recently ordered a national round of inspections which saw almost 300 farms visited in a fortnight.
This found that 65 per cent of farmers were meeting their legal requirements, having either a safety statement or code of practice for their farms. However, inspectors also found a “significant lack of follow-through” in implementation on the ground.
Last week, Patrick Griffin, a senior inspector with the Health and Safety Authority, told a conference in Kilkenny that bodies charged with reducing farm accidents had “run out of carrots”.
He said there were several options open to the authorities where farmers failed to comply with farm-safety regulations.
These included on-the-spot fines, prosecutions or linking direct payments to an element of a health and safety assessment.
This could mean withholding a percentage of the single farm payment for non-compliance.
The conference was also told only eight farmers had been prosecuted for breaches of regulations in the past 20 years.
Health and safety figures for the period from 2008 have shown 59 per cent of farm deaths were caused by tractors and machinery, 15 per cent were wood related, 10 per cent involved livestock, 7 per cent falls and collapses, and 9 per cent other causes.