REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE IRISH FARMERS ASSOCIATION’S SAFETY CAMPAIGN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE IRISH FARMERS ASSOCIATION’S ‘THINK SAFETY, FARM SAFELY’ CAMPAIGN
Dia dhíbh a chairde, it’s a pleasure to join you this morning and thank you for your warm welcome. Thank you also to John Bryan, President of the Irish Farmers Association for his kind invitation to be here today to launch this farm safety campaign which asks our farmers, in fact pleads with them to ‘Think Safety, Farm Safely.’
We are rightly very proud of our farming tradition and our wonderful farm produce but there is one statistic we are not proud of and that is the fact that Irish farms are among the most dangerous places to work in Ireland. They accounted for 26 deaths last year and that is over 50% of all workplace deaths. As well as fatalities, there are approximately 1,500 accidents annually on farms, which leave farmers and others with a range of injuries from minor to very severe, permanent incapacitation. Today’s campaign is a statement of intent that the IFA intends to reverse those statistics, to save lives and to end the heartache and misery that inevitably results from farm accidents and farm deaths.
This campaign is driven by people who passionately believe that we can and should make safety awareness instinctive on our farms. That means looking out for potential dangers, identifying them, putting in place the safety measures needed to ensure the full safety of farmers, their family members, employees, suppliers and all other farm visitors. Responsibility for farm safety starts with the individual farmer. The Health and Safety Authority has a dedicated inspectorate for the sector to ensure that responsibility is taken seriously day in and day out, but the simple truth is that there can be no substitute for personal responsibility.
It is a responsibility that the vast majority of farmers take very seriously and one that today’s launch underlines as a priority issue for the Irish Farmers’ Association. Farms are inherently risky places with livestock and powerful machinery, slurry pits and other hazards capable at any time of posing risks especially to children. Farming is conducted in all weathers and all conditions which adds to the pressures and the safety problems. But men, women and children have paid a dreadful price for cutting corners or failing to be one hundred percent risk aware. Thanks to this campaign and ongoing efforts to encourage workplace safety, we hope to increasingly benefit from measures taken to highlight and to counteract these risks. I congratulate Irish farmers for all the steps already taken to prioritise safety on our farms.
Ireland’s farmers have our appreciation and are entitled to our gratitude for the work they invest in making sure that we the public have a ready supply of fresh, high quality, safe food. But consumers do not want that food to come at the cost of injury or death of any human being. Nor do farmers, and that is why we are here to say that loud and clear, to take the issue of safety right to the heart of discussion and debate among farmers, to galvanise the effort needed to make sure that next year those statistics will be very different - easier to live with, easier to accept. For none of those deaths or injuries had to happen. Every one of them was avoidable. That is why so many farming agencies are shouting the word safety from the barntops - the IFA, the Health and Safety Authority, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Teagasc. I am delighted to add my voice to those insisting that farmers put farm safety at the top of their priority list for 2011. Farm safety is not optional. It is a profound obligation of care for the health, well-being and safety of the self and other human beings. Next year’s statistics will soon tell us how effective this campaign has been. I wish it huge success and hope that Ireland already a world leader in food production; will be recognized as a world leader in farm safety thanks to your efforts.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.