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Farm accident risk increases with old age says IFA

Elderly farmer

There has been some debate around raising the pension age to 68, but Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) farm business chair Rosemary McDonagh’s view is that from a health and safety point of view, this could lead to increased farm accidents.

The Commission on Pensions has made recommendations that there be no change to the pension age of 66 until 2028, and to eventually increase it to 68 by 2039.

McDonagh was of the opinion that the age demographic in farming is old enough as it is.

“We are trying to encourage the passing on of farms to the young trained farmer.” She added that that it is much harder to get the next generation to work on the farm if they have already gone off and got a job. “They don’t want to double-job,” she said.

IFA farm family chair Alice Doyle is also happy about the pension age remaining at 66 until 2028.

“We are discovering that as farmers get older, they are much more likely to be involved in accidents. It is a very physically demanding profession. In a recent report, it [was found] that there have been 100 fatalities on farms since 2016 and, of that, 58% of them were farmers over the age of 65.”  

Doyle stated that the IFA is trying to get older generation farmers to move out of farming, but many would not do this unless they had financial security.

LSL News.

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