Farm Safety
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

We talked about a range of issues. Generational renewal has a role to play here as well because, in general, the figures show a disproportionate number of old people are dying on our farms. When people asked me before why so many people in their 70s, and some in their 80s, are dying on our farms, it is because so many people are farming in their 70s and 80s. In any other profession, they would not still be working and in harm's way to that extent.
In terms of the practical measures in place, when I was a Minister of State, I secured a dedicated budget. I got a separate funding stream under TAMs for farm safety measures, and that has been hugely popular. As well as the farm safety budget, my Department provides 60% grant aid for a range of farm safety-related investments under the farm safety capital investment scheme in TAMs. Further health and safety guidelines are included in all building specifications and all TAMS applicants are required to complete a half-day of farm safety training. That training is included as part of ACRES, the knowledge transfer programme and the suckler carbon efficiency programme, SCEP, as well.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29