Laois-founded charity seeks funds to help farm families in crisis

​The Farm Family Crisis Support Scheme was submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and the Marine. The submission looks to provide a targeted pilot scheme worth €1.45 million over three years.

FRS and Embrace FARM say the support scheme proposes to fund a bank of 10,000 hours of skilled relief farm labour each year, allocated to bereaved and crisis-affected farm families on assessed need. It would be delivered by Embrace FARM and FRS Co-Op, who say that the scheme would be funded through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s farm safety, health and wellbeing allocation.

Explaining the need for such supports, a statement said farm workplace fatalities ranged from 10 to 23 a year between 2020 and 2025. Last year, 23 farmers lost their lives, with farming accounting for about  40% of all work-related deaths in Ireland.

The announcement of the proposal said Teagasc estimate a further 4,523 farm accidents a year, 19% of which cost the injured person more than 61 days of work. It is also claimed that almost four in ten farmers report having no replacement labour available if they are unable to work. Where the principal farmer is suddenly lost, the farm business itself becomes vulnerable within days.

Neil Keane is Head of Agriculture at FRS Co-Op, which has an office in Portlaoise.

“Agriculture remains the most dangerous sector in which to work in Ireland, and it carries a burden of death and serious injury out of all proportion to its share of employment. Additionally, farming is unique in that the death of the farmer does not bring the work to a halt. Livestock must still be fed and milked the following morning. Animal welfare obligations do not pause for a funeral, an inquest or a grant of probate. Seasonal work cannot be deferred.

“Ireland invests substantially and successfully in preventing these incidents. It invests almost nothing in the period immediately after one. FRS Co-Op and Embrace FARM have proposed the Farm Family Crisis Support Scheme to bridge this gap and provide families with much-needed support during their period of grief,” he said.

Catherine Kenneally, Business Development Manager at Embrace FARM.

“No farm family should be forced into financial hardship, rushed succession decisions or the loss of a viable farm business because practical support was unavailable following tragedy. Irish farms are typically owner-managed, dependent on a single decision-maker, reliant on daily livestock management, frequently without a formalised succession plan, and unable to suspend operations.

“Ireland has built genuinely strong structures for farm safety awareness, capital investment in safer equipment, counselling and bereavement support. None of them provide replacement labour after a tragedy. We believe that the Farm Family Crisis Support Scheme is a necessary measure to help bereaved farm families during what is one of the hardest parts of their lives,” she said.

No primary legislation is required, and the scheme can be established administratively and be operational during 2027.

About Embrace FARM

Embrace FARM is a non-profit that provides practical and emotional support to farm families across Ireland who have been affected by serious injury or sudden death.

Set up by the Rohan family from Shanahoe in Co Laois as a support network for farm families after such a loss, they say they support families through the emotional turbulence that comes in the aftermath of these circumstances and provide a bridge to potential practical supports for the future of families.

About FRS Co-Op

FRS Co-Op is a multi-sector co-op that operates a range of business units across employment, fencing, recruitment, training and contract services. Founded in 1980 by farmers to support their communities, the co-op currently employs 2,000 staff and generates annual revenues of around €100 million.