Ministers launch 'Farm Safety Live' at Tullamore Show

With quad bike safety regulations coming from the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine in November 2023, FRS Training, HSA, and FBD placed these demonstrations at centre stage of their collaborative event, ‘Farm Safety Live’, at the Tullamore Show on August 13. The safe handling of livestock also featured, alongside PTO and safe tractor operation.

Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue and Minster for State with special responsibility for farm safety, Martin Heydon, officially opened the Farm Safety Live event showing the level of importance farm safety has on the Government’s agenda.

During his launch speech Minister McConalogue said: “With safety you can never take enough precautions and you are only really ever one step away from danger in a farming environment, so having that attention to safety is absolutely crucial. Thank you to the HSA, FRS, and FBD for putting the time and effort, not just today, but right throughout the year to make sure that we tackle this on-going challenge that we have and one that we really have to continue to make more progress on. This event is ensuring we are engaging with everyone in the farming community in relation to the importance of safety being first and foremost in everything that we do on the farm.”

Minister Heydon followed Minister McConalogue, emphasising the collective responsibility all parties including, farmers, industry, and government have to make farms safer places of work. He said: “Farm safety needs to be the first thought every day and not an afterthought. Unfortunately, farmers are seven times more likely to lose their life in a workplace incident than any other of the two million workers in Ireland. That is a stark statistic and one we have to change and change our attitude to risk as farmers and that starts today.”

The crowds received practical farm safety tips and advice throughout the day with a positive response from the captive audience. The upcoming quad bike regulations and the current grant that is available to farmers for helmets and PTO guards were strongly communicated.

In a joint comment from the organisers of the event, FRS Training, HSA, and FBD, gave a special thank you to Ministers McConalogue and Heydon for taking the time from their busy schedule to open the event and to the Tullamore Show for their support and extended an extra special thanks to the three demonstrators on the day, Pat Reilly, Ian Cosgrove and Vincent Nally representing FRS Training.