Farmer Mental Health and Farm Safety: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2025-11-12 ============================================================ Gareth Scahill (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach The Minister of State is very welcome. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this topic. I will highlight a programme that has been running in Roscommon for a number of years. When I formerly sat on the local community development committee, LCDC, I remember supporting it with funding in the past. It is called the Fit Farmers programme. It was created and delivered by a lady, Laura Tully, a Roscommon native who saw at first hand the strain farming life can take on the body and mind. Anyone who grew up on a farm will know that it is a way of life. It is not a 9 to 5 job. There are long days and there is unpredictable weather and, often, working alone. Farmers are expected to be mechanics, vets, business managers and labourers all in one. Too often, their own health and safety gets pushed down the list and taken for granted. That is why Laura came up with this Fit Farmers programme. She has very successfully rolled it out and delivered it in Roscommon and it is now going further afield, which the Minister of State is fully aware of. She is now delivering the programme in Leitrim, Westmeath and some other neighbouring counties. What is different about the programme is it goes out to meet farmers where they are and where they want to be in their own communities, in local halls and community centres, with sessions that fit around their lives. Over six weeks, farmers come together for fitness training, health checks and honest conversations about well-being, which would not be home territory for a lot of the farmers we are talking about. It is practical, local and delivered by someone who genuinely understands the pressures of rural life. In Roscommon and Leitrim alone, over 90% of participants are showing measurable improvements in health, including lower blood pressure, better fitness and improved sleep. Farmers have said they are eating better, feeling stronger and, more importantly, feeling more connected to their communities because of that engagement. It is not just the physical side. We are talking about mental health as well and connection. That comes from getting off the farm, meeting others and realising you are not on your own. The sense of isolation that so many farmers experience has been chipped away. When a farmer feels supported and less stressed, that directly helps and improves farm safety. Fatigue, distraction and worry are among the biggest risks on farms, so by tackling well-being we are also preventing accidents. For years, we have seen health and safety campaigns on farms and we have had mental health campaigns, but this is one of the few times they have truly come together in a way that makes sense to the farming community. It is not a lecture leaflet. It is about real people helping each other to build better habits, support networks and safer farms. I commend Laura Tully on her leadership and vision. I also acknowledge the community spirit that has made this work, from local farm groups to the Roscommon support partnership and the volunteers who helped her to bring this programme to life. It is a great example of how solutions often start locally but grow outwards when people see their value. Laura had a stand at the ploughing championships this year. We talked about the community in Garranlahan in terms of the recent fires. A number of the farmers there benefited from this programme, so much so that a lot more people in those communities are looking for more of these programmes to be rolled out. I hope the Minister of State takes the example led by Laura Tully with the Fit Farmers programme and looks at rolling it out and spreading the good news and good story we have in the west of Ireland to the rest of the country. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-11-12/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:18+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-11-12