A new initiative aimed at halving the number of deaths and injuries on Irish farms over the next three years has been launched by Teagasc and the Health and Safety Authority.
Based on a Danish model, the initiative is aimed at improving the health and safety record on Irish farms, where accidents have cost 180 lives in the past 10 years. Initially the pilot scheme will focus on counties where there have been above-average increases in farm deaths.
These are Clare (up 15), Cork (up 16), Donegal (up 47), Meath (up 39), Tipperary (up 32) and Wexford (up 33).
Irish farms are among the most dangerous workplaces in the State, and over the past 10 years accounted for about 30 per cent of all workplace deaths. Many children have died in farm-related accidents.
There has also been growing concern about the rise in injuries sustained on farms. These have increased by 50 per cent since the mid-1990s.
The initiative is based on a code of practice document that will substitute for the mandatory safety statement, which farmers are supposed to complete but which many have ignored.
Farmers with no employees or three and fewer, can use the new document rather than writing a safety statement. In this way, according to Teagasc, writing will be kept to a minimum.
The initiative also involves half-day health and safety courses given by Teagasc at centres across the country. Farmers who take part will not be subject to inspection by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).
In a statement, Teagasc said there was strong evidence that participation in short training courses helped farmers to implement health and safety measures.
The HSA said that while it would carry out inspections in counties where there have been higher than average levels of deaths and accidents, it would not inspect farms where the occupant had taken part in the courses.
"In Denmark, a 48 per cent reduction in accident levels occurred when farmers attended a short half-day training course and carried out a farm safety check," it said.
The HSA's assessment of deaths and injuries on farms over the past 10 years concluded that "behaviour change" by farmers was crucial to safety. The first courses will begin later this month in west Cork, Clare, Donegal, Meath, Tipperary and Wexford, and will be offered nationally during the rest of the year.