Westmeath farmers working toward better safety- says IFA

Farmers in Westmeath are already working towards complying with safety standards, the county's IFA president Paddy Donnelly has said. Mr Donnelly was commenting on the Health Safety Authority's (HSA) threat to prosecute farmers who continue not to meet safety standards.Statistics show that while just 6 per cent of the working population are employed on farms, 30 per cent of all workplace accidents occur on the land."We have already produced a DVD on safety and have distributed it amongst the 25 branches in the county," said Mr Donnelly. "As far as I know the majority of farmers in Westmeath have already completed the safety workbook that they are required to fill out. The HSA is has been threatening to go ahead with these prosecutions for a number of years but we aren't quite sure what will actually happen."There are several factors which contribute to farm accidents and yes some farmers do have an 'it won't happen to me attitude'."What we want to say is that an accident can happen to anyone and we are working to make sure that the message gets out there. The fact is that there is an issue with age, an elderly farmer can be more prone to accidents and particularly if he is working alone. Many farms now are one-man farms."These days there are also a lot more animals on the farms which causes an increase in workload which can in turn cause more accidents.Another factory is the heavy machinery needed by farmers which demands careful use and attention. I'm not sure if any children were injured on farms this year but school visits can also result in accidents as sometimes the kids are unaware what dangerous places farms can be."We plan to get more of these DVDs out there an will be working to make sure everyone can be as safe as possible on their farm."The HSA has said that nearly two-thirds of farmers have not completed a code of practice for farm safety, as they are legally required to do.The authority noted that there is "no excuse" for such a low compliance rate as the code is the key approach to improving safety in the farming-sector.