Farmers have been asked to provide feedback on a new app for health and farm safety as part of small, informal discussion groups being held in the coming weeks.
The discussions will take place in Grange, Co. Sligo on February 2; Ballymote, Co. Sligo on February 9; Letterkenny, Co. Donegal on February 16; and Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan on February 23.
The groups will be chaired by creator of the app, PhD student Carolyn Scott and will take approximately 40 – 60 minutes.
Participants will be told about an idea for an app that brings health and safety to farmers in an “easy and useable way”.
Researcher Scott plans to use the feedback from farmers to build on the app, which she aims to launch this summer.
Farm safety app
The app will include all of the information a farmer needs to address farm safety in one area.
It will also point farmers in the direction of who to contact for mental health concerns.
Scott said: “It is farmers’ knowledge and experience that will provide vital information about working farms which can be used to improve the safety of farmers, their family members, and their employees.”
Scott has a farming background and is completing her PhD in Farm Accidents, Injuries and Fatalities.
She was inspired by the idea following on from her grandfather’s farm accident with chemical spray, which stopped him from farming again.
“I was always interested in farm safety because I could see the implications an incident like that could have on a farmer and their family,” Scott said.
Farming was the sector with the highest number of work-related fatalities in 2022 with 13 deaths, according to the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).
The HSA annual report for 2022 shows that the construction and farming sectors accounted for almost three quarters of all work-related fatalities last year.
Overall, there were 27 lives lost in work-related incidents in 2022, which is the lowest number on record since the HSA was established in 1989.