Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has announced the allocation of €1.18 million in funding to 46 projects on farm safety, health and wellbeing.

Farmer health and wellbeing checks, livestock handling training, and tractor driving safety awareness training for children 14 years of age and older, are among some of the 46 projects selected for funding.

The funding is being delivered through the Open Call for Farm Safety, Health and Wellbeing Projects, which was opened to applications earlier this year.

This saw a high volume of applications from across the country, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The projects are being funded from the department’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.

Announcing the funding today (Wednesday, May 20) Minister Heydon said: "I am delighted to make this significant investment which builds on the success of the open call over the last two years in driving improvements in key safety risks on farms and promoting farmer health and wellbeing.

"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," he added.

"This year, to ensure farmers maximise the benefits of their health checks, I am funding behaviour change follow-up conversations facilitated by health professionals," the minister said.

He explained that, 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 farm safety aspect of the funding, Minister Heydon said: "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," he added.