All Island Farm Safety Conference for Monaghan
- 28 October 2015
An All Island Farm Safety Conference will take place in Monaghan on Thursday, 5th November. The event takes place in the Hillgrove Hotel, Monaghan from 10am to 1pm and is being hosted by the Health and Safety Authority and the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland, with support from Teagasc and FBD.
The event is also being supported by many member organisations of the Farm Safety Partnerships north and south including the IFA, Macra Na Feirma, ICMSA and by the Ulster Farmers Union.
The Conference will be opened by Ged Nash, T.D., Minister for Business and Employment with responsibility for occupational safety, health and welfare. Minister Nash will be introduced by Teagasc Director, Professor Gerry Boyle who will emphasise the partnership approach to improving safety, health and welfare.
The Conference will be chaired by Professor Jim Phelan, Chair of the Farm Safety Partnership with Brian Higgisson, Assistant CEO of H.S.A. setting the scene for the conference. Specialists from Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (ROI) will present the current trends in farm accidents and ill health and strategies developed to protect farm families from injury and tragedy.
Recent trends in farm accidents and prevention in the ROI will be outlined by Pat Griffin, Senior Inspector, Health and Safety Authority and John McNamara, National Health and Safety Officer with Teagasc. Bryan Monson and Malcolm Downey from HSENI will outline trends and approaches from Northern Ireland.
A case study on the effective farm safety management will be given by Simon Best who captained both Ulster and Ireland at senior rugby level.
The findings of a recent study on the causes of stress in farming and its impact on safety levels will be presented. The study was conducted by Emelia Furey and Dr Denis O’Hora, School of Psychology at NUI, Galway in association with Teagasc and University of Limerick.
The conference will conclude with an open forum chaired by Matt Dempsey, former editor of the Irish Farmers Journal on approaches to tackling future safety challenges. Leaders of farming organisations will participate in this open forum.
There is no charge for admission and no booking required at the event which takes place in the Hillgrove Hotel, Old Armagh Road, Monaghan. The conference is open to all, with farmers, contractors and persons with an interest in Farm Safety particularly welcome to attend. The event commences at 10.00am and finishes at 1.00pm. The full programme is available at http://www.teagasc.ie/events/2015/All-Ireland-Farming-Conference.pdf