Figures published today in the HSA's 2014 Annual Report and a Summary of Injury, Illness and Fatality Statistics 2013 - 2014, show the body with responsbility for promoting health and safety in the workplace carried out a total of 2,590 farm inspections in Ireland last year.

Some 2,758 inspections took place across the entire sector, with 2,590 in agriculture, 100 in forestry, and 68 in fishing, just shy of the HSA's target of 3,000 for the year.

As a result of the 2,590 inspections, it was found that:

  • 80% of farms had adequate separate play areas for children
  • 69% had adequate health and safety provision for elderly people
  • 55% had adequate slurry handling arrangements
  • 72% had a safety statement or code of practice available at the workplace
  • 59% of those with a safety statement or code of practice had complied with the action list of hazards
  • 23% of inspections resulted in enforcement in relation to unguarded PTO shafts
  • 37% resulted in written advice on maintaining handbrakes on tractors
  • The HSA also carried out 24 market surveillance inspections of farm machinery in 2014, which resulted in verbal advice for 62%, and enforcement action for 23%.

    Fatalities

    Overall there were 56 fatal workplace accidents reported in 2014, compared to 47 in 2013, with agriculture accounting for more than half of the fatalities last year.

    A total of 30 people died on farms in Ireland in 2014.

    Minister for Business and Employment, Ged Nash TD, said, “The increased fatality rate last year is largely due to the unfortunate rise in the number of people killed on farms.

    "Huge effort has been made to try to reverse the situation in relation to farming and awareness of the risks has never been higher. It is time now to convert that awareness into action, the carnage and tragedy that we see on our farms every year must stop."

    Martin O’Halloran, CEO of the HSA commented, “If we exclude agriculture, the overall trend is downwards.”

    Despite this high number of farm deaths, the HSA says one of its key themes in 2014 was improving safety on farms.

    The body claims to have made significant progress on each goal in the plan to improve farm safety, which includes working with EMBRACE (an organisation that provides bereavement support to farm families) on a memorial day for those lost to farm deaths, hosting a national farm safety conference, authority inspectors giving over 50 farm safety presentations nationally, and arrangements being made for a safety leaflet to be included in the Department of Agriculture correspondence with farmers on single farm payments.

    Prosecutions

    There were also 32 prosecutions in 2014 for serious safety and health breaches, one of which involved the agricultural sector, with fines totalling €293,900 imposed.

    On 16 June 2014, at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, Arrabawn Co-operative Society Limited, trading as Dan O’Connor Feeds, pleaded guilty to two charges.

    The charges related to an incident which took place in April 2012, when the owner of a contract truck transport business, which had been contracted by Dan O’Connor Feeds to transport animal feedstuffs from their manufacturing facility, was loading feedstuffs into his truck.

    The owner's right arm was severed below the elbow after it came in contact with dangerous moving parts inside an unguarded opening of a chain conveyor.

    Arrabawn was fined €25,000 as a result.

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