Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with responsibility for Farm Safety, Martin Heydon TD launched a video series covering a range of farm safety and health hazards on farms. The videos show ‘best practice’ related to facilities and behaviours for farm safety on farms. A large number of farm families and over 50 people contributed to the videos.
The development of the video series was led by Teagasc health and safety specialists, Dr John McNamara and Francis Bligh, in association with FBD Insurance and the Health and Safety Authority, and produced by Farm TV.
Speaking at the launch Minister Heydon stated, “I would like to compliment all involved in the production of this video series. The videos are short and concise. Each one, which takes a couple of minutes to view, contains a wealth of information on how farmers can make changes, which not only protect themselves and their loved ones, but also helps them to carry out their work more efficiently. Minister Heydon continued; “Every year there are thousands of non-fatal incidents on farms. I firmly believe if we can reduce these then we will reduce the number of fatal and life-changing incidents.”
Dr John McNamara, Teagasc Senior Health and Safety specialist, stated, “these videos can be used to enhance the quality of farm health and safety training courses and social media video content. Teagasc research shows that visual materials are very positively received and motivate adoption of both safe behaviours and improved farm facilities for safety and health.”
Ciaran Roche, Risk Manager FBD stated, “FBD believes that this video series can help make a real difference in improving safety culture and behaviour on Irish farms. By showing farmers ‘best practice’ on video this will allow farmers to implement these safety standards on their own farms, making Irish farms a safer place for everyone. ”
Pat Griffin Senior Inspector with the Health and Safety Authority stated, “simply reading about farm health and safety has a limited effect, but viewing these videos and practicing what is shown is a strong approach to gain change. The Health and Safety Authority and the Farm Safety Partnership have worked closely with Teagasc and FBD Insurance on producing these short videos.”
The videos can be viewed by clicking on the following link https://www.teagasc.ie/rural-economy/farm-management/farm-health–safety/videos/
Source: Teagasc
