Ministers Heydon and Collins announce request for tender for a Children’s and Young Persons’ Farm Safety Awareness Initiative
- Foilsithe: 17 Meitheamh 2026
- An t-eolas is déanaí: 17 Meitheamh 2026
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon TD, and Minister of State for Forestry, Farm Safety and Horticulture, Niall Collins TD, have today announced a competitive public procurement procedure seeking proposals that promote children’s and young persons’ farm safety awareness in second level schools for the next five years.
Announcing the launch of the eTender, Minister Heydon said:
“The successful tender will deliver farm safety awareness training to second level students in schools across the country through in-class learning, webinars and farm visits. This initiative has the potential to make a significant contribution to farm safety and our collective efforts to continue to drive down the number of fatal and serious non-fatal incidents on Irish farms. The aim is to foster a lifelong culture of risk awareness among second level students when it comes to farm safety.”
Over the past ten years, eight people under 18 years of age have died in incidents on Irish farms, all involving farm vehicles. Children have also sustained serious life-changing injuries in farm incidents.
Highlighting the importance of keeping children safe on farms, Minister Collins said:
“Great progress has been made in improving children’s safety on Irish farms since the 1980s when 74 people under 18 years died in farm incidents in the ten-year period from 1980 to 1989. We must make every effort to prevent these tragic incidents. One fatal or serious life-changing incident on a farm is one too many. By engaging with second level students on farm safety, we aim to shift behavioural norms and equip the next generation to actively champion farm safety in their own families and communities.”
The Department is providing funding of €100,000 from its dedicated farm safety budget for 2026, with an option to extend the contract for a further four years.
For further information on farm safety visit: www.gov.ie/farmsafety.
Notes
The successful initiatives will help address children’s and young persons’ safety awareness on Irish farms by assisting teachers in second level schools in educating their students about the potential dangers associated with farming and agriculture.
This initiative is part of a series of Department-funded initiatives focusing on children’s safety on farms. Other such initiatives include:
- Funding of €81,665 for the Farm Safety Ambassador Programme being delivered by Irish Rural Link/AgriKids to promote farm safety awareness among primary school pupils.
- The Irish Rural Link/AgriKids initiative which was recently awarded €22,250 to promote children’s and young persons’ farm safety awareness at shows and events.
- Funding was awarded under the recent open call for farm safety, health and wellbeing projects to 11 projects to deliver tractor driving safety awareness training to over 1,600 children aged 14 years and older.
The successful initiative must be delivered by November 2026.
The tender has been posted on the eTenders website (Reference 8433993) with a closing date of 2pm, 20 July 2026.