A new approach is needed to address the very important issue of farm safety and people who have suffered in farm accidents in the past are the people who are best placed to do it.
As we have seen over the past few months there have been several serious accident on farms and farm safety is a huge issue all around the country. The fact that many farmers are elderly is a contributory factor and the fact that farmers are under more and more pressure. There are large number of farmers around the country that I have met personally who have been seriously injured as a result of farm accidents who are willing to put a package together and talk to farmers about farm safety.
I strongly believe that if we want to try to reduce the amount of farm accidents this is the way to do it. A man in a suit with a laptop is not the way to go about this problem. Farmers will relate to other farmers and in speaking to these people who have been affected by farm accidents they would connect with farmers on this most important issue. I would ask the farming organisations and Teagasc and the Minister Creed to come together and give this suggestion serious consideration because the system that we are using to talk to farmers at the moment is simply not working. You have to have someone that relates to farmers and no someone that is talking down at you.
