A new requirement to record details of farm accidents and fatalities in the EU has been adopted by the European Parliament.

It means, safety measures on farms for machinery, animal housing and information on farm accidents must be collected in surveys of EU farming.

Where a farm accident has occurred the type of accident, the severity of injuries and demographic background of those involved must be recorded.

The requirement is part of the Integrated Farm Statistics Regulation which establishes a framework for European statistics at farm level.

Mairead McGuiness MEP and first vice-president of the European Parliament has welcomed the introduction of the new requirement, saying: “An essential step in garnering political and policy support for action is the recording of the vital statistics of fatalities and injuries on farms, and this element has been severely lacking up to now.”

“This is an important initiative in ensuring that we have the necessary statistics to know what is happening on our farms and that hard, rather than anecdotal, evidence is available to justify and underpin important actions to protect and save lives.”

McGuinness' comments echo that of Pat Griffin, senior inspector with the Health Safety Authority here, who earlier this year spoke about how Europeans are "being fed on the lives of 1,000 farmers every single year" – a very shocking statistic, according to McGuinness.