Funding for Offaly farm safety project and three Farm Relief Network schemes
The announcement by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon T.D., of €1.18 million in funding for 46 farm safety, health, and wellbeing projects nationwide, includes a significant allocation for a local project in County Offaly
The announcement by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon T.D., of €1.18 million in funding for 46 farm safety, health, and wellbeing projects nationwide, which includes a significant allocation for a local project in County Offaly, has been welcomed by Fine Gael TD for Offaly, John Clendennen.
Towra Livestock Services, based in Birr, Co. Offaly, has been awarded €31,500 for their project focusing on "Safe Animal Handling, Animal Welfare Officer, and Showring Safety Training."
Congratulating the successful Offaly project, Deputy Clendennen said: "I am delighted to see Towra Livestock Services in Birr receive this vital funding. Farm safety is an issue of paramount importance, and this investment of €31,500 will make a real difference in our local farming community. The training provided in safe animal handling and showring safety is crucial for preventing accidents and ensuring the wellbeing of both farmers and livestock."
The Farm Relief Service (FRS) located on the Offaly/ TipperARy border outside Roscrea also received funding for three projects - Chainsaw Training for Farmers, Farm Family CPD Project and Working at Height.
The funding is part of a broader initiative that supports farmer health and wellbeing checks, livestock handling training, and tractor driving safety awareness. With livestock being a significant factor in farm incidents, the training delivered by projects like Towra Livestock Services will make an important contribution to safety when working with animals.
"This funding demonstrates a strong commitment to addressing farming's safety record and supporting the health and wellbeing of our farmers. I want to commend Towra Livestock Services for their dedication to improving safety standards in Offaly and beyond," Deputy Clendennen added.
The projects are funded from the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine's dedicated farm safety budget, following a highly competitive open call earlier this year.
Welcoming the expansion of the farmer physical and mental health checks to include health behaviour change follow-up conversations, Minister for Agricuture, Martin Heydon said: “The farmer physical and mental health checks have proven to be very successful over the past two years with over 5,700 farmer health checks completed since August 2024. This year, to ensure farmers maximise the benefits of their health checks, I am funding behaviour change follow-up conversations facilitated by health professionals. Where appropriate, farmers who avail of health checks will be offered tailored follow-up supports to encourage them to take the appropriate steps to protect their health.”
Commenting on the delivery of farm safety related training courses under the previous open calls, Minister Heydon said: “With over 400 children aged 14 years of age and older having completed tractor driving safety awareness training, I am pleased with the success of the open calls in 2024 and 2025 in educating young people involved in farming about the risks associated with tractors and machinery and best practices when it comes to the safe operation of tractors and machinery. Also, with livestock second only to tractors and machinery when it comes to fatal incidents on farms, the livestock handling training delivered to over 400 farmers in 2025 will make an important contribution to safety when working with livestock.”
The projects are being funded from the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine’s dedicated farm safety budget. Successful projects under the call cover one or more of the following themes: farm safety, farmers’ physical health, farmers’ mental health and wellbeing, farmers’ physical and mental health checks, vision checks, supporting older farmers, tractor driving safety awareness training for children 14 years of age and older, chainsaw training for farmers and working at height for farmers.
For further information on farm safety, visit: www.gov.ie/farmsafety.