Agri Aware and Minister of State with responsibility for Farm Safety at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Healy-Rae TD presented a prize to the national winners of the Agri Aware ‘Farm Safety First’ programme on 28 February.
The prizegiving took place at the Agri Aware Farm Walk & Talk event in Salesian Agricultural College, Pallaskerny, Co. Limerick.
The group winners of the programme from St Michael’s College in Listowel, Co. Kerry were Eoin Quilter, Gavin Joy and Eoghan O’Regan.
Participating students designed a piece of equipment that reflected their learnings from the ‘Farm Safety First’ programme.
The students from St. Michael’s College worked together to design a motorised magnetic slurry tank cover, with Eoin, Gavin and Eoghan saying they believe that young farmers are more likely to embrace innovative ideas and technology to make farms safer.
They also said their design is for a younger demographic.
‘Innovation To Improve Safety’
Healy-Rae presented the award certificates and a prize of €600 to the students.
Speaking at the prizegiving, Healy-Rae said, “Eoin, Gavin and Eoghan, and their teacher Rebecca Stapleton are to be congratulated for their work and innovation to improve safety around slurry handling by designing a Motorised & Magnetic Slurry Tank Cover.
“Slurry is an important resource on our farms, but we must never forget that slurry is potentially lethal, and its storage, handling and spreading are high risk activities which have led to close calls, injuries and, unfortunately, fatalities.”
The Farm Safety First programme – supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine – aims to raise awareness about the challenges and dangers of farming and promote safe practices, as well as providing guidance to transition year students currently working on farms or considering a future in farming.
Since launching last year, the programme has been a great success, with over 6,300 students registering to take part this year as 35 farm safety workshops were held across the country to accompany videos and other learning materials.
‘Lifelong Culture Of Farm Safety’
On the programme, Healy-Rae added, “The Farm Safety First programme makes an important contribution to our efforts to improve farm safety.
“Agri Aware, by engaging with second-level students, some of whom will be the farmers of the future, have instilled a lifelong culture of farming safely in them and I hope the people they interact with.
“It was a great achievement by Agri Aware to reach over 6,300 students around the country in almost 160 schools in the programme’s first year.
“The success of this programme is that every participating student and their families are winners when it comes to farm safety.”
Commenting on the first Farm Safety programme, Agri Aware chairman Shay Galvin said, “The students from St. Michael’s College applied the lessons from the programme in a creative and practical way to address a common danger on Irish farms.
“This is exactly what we hoped to achieve, teaching students to take responsibility for their own safety and make smarter, safer decisions when they are on farms and to come up with innovative solutions to make farms a safer place for all.
“I congratulate the students of St. Michael’s College and their teachers on winning the overall group prize and well done to all students who engaged in the programme across the country.”
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