Farm-Work Related Deaths in Ireland

Research conducted by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work suggests that in the ten-year period between 2010 and 2024 there has been an average of over 500 registered deaths per year in the EU’s agriculture and forestry sectors and over 150,000 non-fatal accidents per year.

This has previously prompted the European Commission to call for significant improvements in data collection and quality of statistics.

In fact, a major research project conducted by The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) platform has repeatedly highlighted its concern that while agriculture remains one of the most hazardous industries in Europe, measured by work-related injuries, illnesses, disabilities and deaths; studies continue to show great differences in national injury and illness rates.

COST has also highlighted that as long as the absence of a statistically robust understanding of the determinants of safety culture continues, so too will well-informed actions to improve health, safety and risk management.

COST does accept however that some EU member states countries have been more successful than others in reducing agricultural injuries and illnesses.

This is certainly the case in Ireland as can be seen from provisional data released as part of a report published this month (January) from its Health and Safety Authority (HSA).

Ireland’s Health and Safety Authority shows the fatality rate per 100,000 workers has fallen from 2.7 to 1.2 in the ten-year period from 2015 to 2024.

When broken down further the HSA indicates that there were 33 work-related fatalities recorded in Ireland 2024, a reduction of 23% compared with 2023, with significant improvements in agriculture and construction sectors underpinning the reduction.

There equates to a decline of 50% in construction, while the agriculture sector saw a reduction from 20 fatalities in 2023 to 12 last year, an overall decline of 40%.

However, it has also been pointed out that while farming may have accounted for 12 out of 33 work-related deaths in 2024, this number still represents over one third of all deaths from a sector employing just 4% of the workforce in Ireland.

Data from the National Farm Survey conducted by Ireland’s Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Teagasc has shown that about 4,500 farm accidents occur on Irish farms each year, with 44% putting the victim out of work for at least four days. Furthermore, Teagasc has shown that on average some 80% of these farm accidents required medical treatment, with 46% of victims attending hospital. Over 90% of these injuries, according to Teagasc are predictable and indeed preventable.

At the national level a significant number of initiatives have been undertaken to reduce farm related deaths and accidents in Ireland. The Health and Safety Authority developed its Farm Safety Action Plan 2021- 2024 with specific focus on high-risk activities around the use of tractors, farm vehicles, livestock handling and working at height.

The HSA also developed a successful Farm Safety Partnership Advisory Committee (FSPAC) to involve industry stakeholders in improving occupational safety and health in agriculture.

More recently Ireland’s Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine has provided grants of up to 60% for the purchase of Power Take-Off (PTO) shaft covers.

PTO shaft covers transfer mechanical power from a tractor to an implement, such as a brush hog, bailer, or chopper. This is vitally important as PTO covering enable the rotating shaft of tractors and other farm vehicles to keep body parts from catching in them.

The measure, while financially modest (the grants provide a contribution to participating farmers for a maximum of four PTO shaft covers to a maximum eligible cost of €100 per PTO shaft cover) is indicative of how even small measures can have a disproportionate impact on farm deaths and farm related disabilities and accidents.

At EU wide level, Ireland along with all other EU member states will also have to incorporate farm safety measures as part of a number of policies initiated by The European Parliament to reduce farm deaths.

Prominent and most controversial among these initiatives is the inclusion of the principle of social conditionality in the most recent Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Within the context of CAP social conditionality purports to improve farm workers’ health and safety by linking CAP payments to compliance with labour laws, including health and safety regulations.

While hailed as a potentially transformative policy, the measure has also been heavily criticised as a policy that will merely increase the volume of burdens for an agricultural sector already heavily regulated by inspections and EU enforcement mechanisms.

However, those who believe the policy of social conditionality as currently formulated does not go far enough would point to the fact that Member States will retain the responsibility of defining precise rules and specifying the administrative penalties involved.

Supporters of social conditionality and the linking of farm payments farm safety measures also highlight the fact that Member States, including Ireland have January 1st, 2025, to put the new conditionality into effect. They further note that because of this it will be 2026 before it will be possible to conduct a comprehensive impact assessment on the practical implementation of conditionality across the EU.

Additional legislative and regulatory measures impacting farm safety in Ireland and across the EU can be seen in the drive by the European Parliament to formulate legislation related to the use of pesticides.

In this regard there have been calls in the Irish parliament requesting the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to engage with his EU counterparts on requiring all farm vehicles sold in the European community to be supplied with advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) technologies.

This is particularly relevant for farm safety as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems in the agriculture sector can reduce tractor related, physically demanding and repetitive tasks while increasing precision and productivity.

However, the minister has also made it clear that many of the standards applicable to tractors are Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standards rather than EU standards.

The picture that emerges with respect to farm safety and farm related deaths and accidents in Ireland is therefore one of cautious optimism.

Ireland certainly has made determined attempts to tackle the issue since the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 backed by regulations and Code of Practice to improve farm safety were introduced.

In conclusion it may be noted that while the HSA data outlining a reduction from 20 farm fatalities in 2023 to 12 last year, an overall decline of 40%, is reason for celebration, it is too soon to describe this as confirmation of the kind of long-term trend that Ireland and its agencies tackled with promoting farm safety would like to become a reality.