NATIONAL PLOUGHING CHAMPIONSHIPS:THERE WAS an official attendance of 49,000 people on the opening day of the National Ploughing Championships yesterday at Cardenton, near Athy, Co Kildare, a dramatic fall on last years opening day attendance of 70,000 in Kilkenny.
However, last year’s opening day was described as exceptional and the organisers, the National Ploughing Association, said an attendance of almost 50,000 for an opening day has been the average attendance over the past decade or so.
One of the benefits of the reduced opening-day turnout was that the special traffic plan put in place around the normally congested town of Athy worked well and traffic flowed smoothly on and off the site.
Farmers on the site were saying the threat of rain meant many did not come, opting instead to get the benefit of what turned out to be a fine day in Kildare.
At the championships, which have farm safety as a central theme, Minister of State for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary announced a new autumn programme of Teagasc farm safety training.
The training courses will show farmers how to use the farm safety code of practice. Using this code of practice will assist farmers in complying with health and safety legislation.
They will be open to Teagasc and non-Teagasc clients. Courses last half a day and cost €30 per person and are based on a Danish model.
The Minister said there was strong international evidence that participation in a short training course assisted farmers to implement health and safety measures.
“In Denmark a 48 per cent reduction in accident levels occurred when farmers attended a short half-day training course and carried-out a farm-safety check,” he said.
There were 21 fatal accidents on Irish farms last year and there have been five to date, so far this year.
The Irish Rural Link organisation yesterday issued a statement at the championships to remind older people working on the land to maintain a positive outlook. Irish Rural Link is a member of the Health and Safety Authority’s Farm Safety Partnership Advisory Committee.
“The highest rate of farm fatalities generally involves elderly farmers who may be working alone for much of the time. They in particular need to take risks to their safety and health seriously,” said Vincent Nally, rural link’s membership development officer.
“Maintaining mental and emotional wellbeing is more important than ever, with the country having experienced the third bad summer in a row. This when combined with longer evenings, low product prices and cutbacks to supports and schemes means older people are particularly vulnerable,” he added.
He said initiatives to contact those at risk of loneliness and isolation in a rural setting must continue, while maintaining the dignity of those targeted.
The Health Service Executive South’s farm and rural stress helpline provides a model which should be implemented across the country as an effective but low-cost way of starting to address rural isolation.
Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris, who is the party spokesman on agriculture and fisheries, yesterday launched a report on the future of farming and fishing in the west of Ireland.
The report noted that between 1996 and 2006, overall employment in counties Clare, Kerry, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo and Donegal rose by 48 per cent but the numbers working in farming and fishing fell by 39 per cent, with a total of 18,511 people leaving the land and the sea.
He said unemployment in these counties along with the rural part of Co Limerick was 58,729 in September 2008, an increased of 50 per cent from 39,142 in September 2007.
“This trend has continued as a large proportion of those employed in the western counties are in sectors most vulnerable to economic downturn,” noted the report.
Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith and the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny will visit the championships today.