2010 Farm Fatalities at an Alarming Figure
Chairman of Macra na Feirme’s Agricultural Affairs committee Kieran McEvoy speaking at Teagasc Moorepark yesterday March 2nd has said ‘farm safety has to be a key priority for all farmers, especially in the busy spring time period and Macra na Feirme will be conducting a serious of briefing meeting of Young Farmer groups with a strong farm safety theme’.
Mr. McEvoy said ‘he was alarmed to hear that the number of farm fatalities has increased dramatically in 2010 and this is of significant concern to us. Already there have been 8 fatalities on Irish farms this year which is a frightening figure and represents over half of the total of all 2009 fatalities on Irish Farms.
Mr. McEvoy added ‘we need the combined efforts of farm organisations and the media to highlight the need to improve farm safety and reverse the alarming trend of increased farm fatalities to all farmers across the country’. Farmers workloads are increasing yet safety cannot be forgotten, in three month of 2010 to have half the fatalities of 2009 is a devastating figure and work needs to be done to prevent further on farm deaths’.
Macra na Feirme will highlight the issue of farm safety at their young farmer meetings and farm walks and the organisation will be conducting briefing meetings for our county YFDG groups on the following dates:
Thursday 11th March Mitchelstown
Thursday 18th March Abbeyleix
Thursday 25th March Carrick-on-Shannon
Macra na Feirme strongly recommends all farmers complete a Farm Risk Assessment document which is available to them to www.farmsafely.com or www.macra.ie this assessment is sponsored by FBD. An electronic version of the Risk Assessment document allows you to fill in and save and update the risk assessment electronically.
