The Irish Farmer's Association (IFA) launched a new farm crime survey at the National Ploughing Championships on Thursday 22 September.

The study, which is being undertaken by Technological University Dublin (TUD), focuses on understanding the experiences and attitudes from Irish farmers towards farm crime, the criminal justice responses to it and the crime prevention measures for it.

The Irish farm crime survey 2022 is part of a wider international study that was first done in Australia, but is the first of its kind in Ireland.

Patterns

Author of the survey and criminology lecturer at TUD Nicola Hughes said that the survey will help find out geographically where crime is most common and what sort of crime is happening in certain areas.

The survey is completely anonymous, but it will require farmers to say what county they’re from. It will take about 15 minutes to complete from start to finish.

“The survey is looking specifically at farming communities. We are asking about their experiences of crime, what type of crime - in other words, what was stolen or what was taken.

“We are trying to find out the extent of the problem and try and understand what more can [we] do about farm crime and helping farm communities,” Hughes said.

Remedy

IFA crime prevention executive Barry Carey said that the results of the survey will aid in what An Garda Síochána and the Government can do to remedy issues such in trouble areas in rural Ireland.

“It’s probably one of the biggest surveys in the last while and we hope to get several thousand surveys completed in order to make it substantial.

“It will ultimately mean we will have a fair idea [of] the extent of the problems in relation to farm crime and where they’re happening,” he said.

Carey added that it is hoped that the survey results will be back from TUD by the end of the year.

To complete the survey, click here.