A total of 446 farmers, foresters and fishers received written advice from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) in 2020 on the back of inspections.

The HSA completed 897 inspections and investigations in the sector last year.

Of this number, 32 improvement notices were issued and 35 prohibition notices. It did not issue any fines to anyone in the sector.

It completed 499 animal handling inspections, 390 tractor and farm machinery inspections and 138 working at a height inspections.

680 farms contained neither plant protection products nor biocidal products on the farm

The HSA said inspection reports from 1,427 full cross-compliance inspections which were conducted in 2019 were forwarded to the pesticide controls division for review in 2020.

“Of the 1,427 inspections conducted, 680 farms contained neither plant protection products nor biocidal products on the farm,” it found.

Prosecutions

Last year the HSA completed a number of prosecutions through the courts, with farmers and agribusinesses fined.

Carlow District Court heard that an employee of a farm suffered personal injury when they fell from a height while working on the roof of a new dairy unit

In January 2020 at Nenagh District Court, a person pleaded guilty and was fined €2,000 after an individual who was not an employee suffered a personal injury and died after the accused drove a tractor with a rotavator/harrow attached, while the individual was standing on the moving equipment. The incident happened in 2018.

In July 2020, Carlow District Court heard that an employee of a farm suffered personal injury when they fell from a height while working on the roof of a new dairy unit in 2018. The employer pleaded guilty and was fined €1,500.

In another case heard before Wexford District Court in 2020, JP Murphy Bros Farm and Industrial Building Limited pleaded guilty to one charge and was ordered to pay compensation of €180,000.

The court heard an employee suffered serious personal injuries when he fell six metres while removing fixings on corrugated roof panels on an agricultural building in 2015.