Health and Safety

Agriculture has traditionally been a cornerstone of the Irish economy. Official figures indicate that there are up to 120,000 employed in this sector. When we include family members living on farms the numbers potentially exposed to safety risks in farming is approximately 500,000. The Agriculture sector has a very high risk profile and consistently has the highest fatality rate of any sector.

Fig 1 shows causes of Fatal Farm Accidents (2000-2009)

The figures listed are generally for agriculture but they do include a small number of fatal accidents in forestry and tree surgery operations.

Figure 2: Key Accident Statistics (2004-2010

Year	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Total Fatalities (All Workplaces)	50	74	50	67	57	43	48
Total Agriculture & Forestry Fatalities	13	18	18	11	21	11	25
Agriculture/Forestry /Fishing Fatality Rate*	13.3	14.7	15.5	17.7	15.5	13.4	N/A
Non-fatal injury data
Total injuries reported to HSA	8098	8024	7974	8299	8058	6977	7073
Agriculture & Forestry reports	78	100	93	87	90	88	77
Agriculture & Forestry reports as & of total	1%	1.2%	1.1%	1%	1%	1.2%	1%
*Rate is calculated per 100,000 workers in the sector. All fatalities indicated in the table above are under the following NACE A sub categories: ·          Crop and animal production, hunting and related service activities ·          Forestry and logging

Health and Safety Authority figures show that the fatality rate in agriculture, in particular, is alarmingly high. The sector has a far higher fatality rate than any other major economic sector.

In the ten year period between 1998 and 2007, 15 fatalities per 100,000 workers was recorded, compared with two fatalities per 100,000 workers across all sectors.

The age profile of those killed is of serious concern. The old and the young are exceptionally vulnerable to death and injury on Irish farms.

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