Cork's secondary school students can avail of farm safety programme

Second level students in Cork will be offered a chance to take part in a new farm safety awareness programme being rolled out by FRS Training.

In Cork, 85 secondary schools are going to be contacted by FRS Training to register their interest in the new farm safety awareness initiative, which will be delivered by November 2025.

The new programme will offer face-to-face, and webinar-led farm safety training modules. This will cover all major farm safety risks and how to mitigate them, including livestock, machinery, slurry, working at heights and tractors.

The programme will be aimed at general secondary level students, along with transition year and agricultural science students.

The new farm safety awareness initiative will also provide guidance to teachers in educating students about the potential dangers associated with farming and agriculture.

The programme is being funded under the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine’s dedicated Farm Safety budget and will seek to engage with second-level students in more than 700 schools across the country.

Health Safety Authority (HSA) figures illustrate that farms remain the most dangerous workplaces in Ireland, with a total of 171 fatal accidents recorded on farms in the past decade.

FARM FATALITIES

There have been 16 farming fatalities in Ireland so far in 2025, which is more than the total number of fatalities in farming for all of 2024.

Michael Healy Rae, the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with special responsibility for Farm Safety, said he is delighted to support the farm safety awareness programme being delivered by FRS training to improve awareness around farm safety.

“Unfortunately, children and young people in farming are particularly at risk of being involved in a farm incident. Since 2015, 12 people under 18 years of age have died on Irish farms and others have been seriously injured.”

He urged second level schools and teachers to avail of the opportunity to educate their students about the hazards on farms and how incidents can be prevented.