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

I thank the Deputy. I also want to mention the accelerated capital allowances scheme for farm safety equipment which was expanded to cover a broader range of farm safety investments in budget 2025. A suite of different financial supports are there.
In relation to older farmers, three quarters of farm fatalities last year involved farmers over 60 years of age. The HSA's farm safety partnership has designed a leaflet entitled, Farming in Older Age , and this will be distributed along with the 2026 BISS, basic income support for sustainability packs to over 125,000 farmers. It will be going out in the post to them. Additionally, my Department is providing funding for the delivery of farm safety awareness programmes for primary and secondary school students to instil the message of farm safety into children from a young age. It is not just to make children more aware. As a father of four young kids, I can tell you the pester power of kids to give out to the older farmers who are doing stuff that is dangerous. Ultimately, at the heart of all this, we have a poor attitude to risk on our farms. We take risks, we put ourselves in harm's way and we think near misses are a normal way of life. No other industry finds that acceptable, and until we change that attitude to risk, we are going to continue to have an unacceptably high level. There is no level that is acceptable because one death is one too many and where are now right now has to change.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29