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It was revealed in the Daíl last week that the HSA intend to spend €624,000 on farm safety in 2018.
This is nearly double the amount spent in 2014 when €327,953 was spent.
The figures were revealed by Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys in response to a parliamentary question by the Fianna Fáil spokesperson for agriculture Charlie McConalogue.
Minister Humphreys said that in 2017 the HSA allocated a budget of €384,000 for farm safety initiatives in 2017.
However, actual expenditure was higher at €533,995 due to the allocation of additional funding by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation.
She also said that in 2018 the HSA will be carrying out three focused inspection campaigns each of one-month duration. These inspections will address the areas of livestock handling, farm vehicle safety and maintenance and working at height.
In addition to specific farm safety initiatives or inspections of farms by inspectors, there will be routine unannounced inspections to monitor compliance with a range health and safety regulations and to investigate farm accidents.
In any one year there can be between 60-90 investigations on farms, with the rest being unannounced inspections.
Inspection level
The planned target of farm inspections was significantly increased in 2010 from 1,500 per year to 3,000 and its impact assessed over the following five-year period.
However, the increased level of inspection showed no significant reduction in farm deaths.
Minister Humphreys also pointed out that the reduction of farm inspection numbers from a target of 3,000 to 2,000 for 2018 is a planned strategy by the HSA to allow its team of farm inspectors to offer strong support to the knowledge transfer groups.
During 2017, HSA inspectors were involved with over 100 such groups, in addition to farm walks, thereby reaching a further 2,000 farmers through such engagements.
She concluded by saying the HSA recently completed a recruitment campaign for 11 inspector posts, six of which are field inspection posts and have now been filled.
These six inspectors will be involved in future farm inspection campaigns, thereby helping to ensure that farm inspection targets will be achieved.
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