The Health and Safety Authority’s latest Farm Safety Action Plan, published yesterday, is jam-packed with damning statistics about the sector’s safety record.
One that’s not new, but is nonetheless shocking, is while agriculture represents approximately 5pc to 6pc of the working population, it frequently accounts for up to 50pc of all workplace fatalities.
Non-fatal injury and illness in agriculture statistics are difficult to come across. This is due to the underreporting of farm injuries by farmers and farmworkers, despite the legal obligation to do so.
Despite this, there is no doubt almost every farmer has a story to tell of near misses, broken bones, cuts and bruises — and nearly every farmer, if they’re honest, will say these could have been avoided.
I was gored by a suckler cow after she calved in my early twenties. She had me pinned to the ground, and it was a miracle I wasn’t killed. It shook me up, and my affinity for suckler cows ended that day. There are none left on my farm today.
On page 24, Sean Malone details how a bale-handling incident has haunted him for 30 years, and he rightly urges farmers to take a moment and think about what they are doing.
But as we all know, talking about being safe is one thing, and farming in a safe way is another.
It’s up to every farmer to drive a culture change in the sector — no one can really do it for us.
The 10-year period from 2011-2020 saw 208 work-related deaths occur in agriculture. Of these victims, 51pc were aged 65 years or older.
It’s another damning statistic that’s not new, and the scary part is, unless something changes, it’s likely to get worse.
Addressing the challenges and complexities associated with Irish farming’s ageing workforce has got little attention of late, but remains one of the central hurdles facing the sector.
On page 12, Mike Brady highlights cases of farmers continuing to farm against medical advice, damaging their health, and often running down their farms.
As Mike points out, many of these farmers keep going for fear of losing EU payment income, but for others, farming defines who they are, and they have no intention of stopping.
Nor should they be forced to, but policymakers need to find ways to ensure that these farmers get help. And perhaps older farmers need to learn how to ask for and accept help.
