Ministers Heydon and Collins announce request for tender for a Children’s and Young Persons’ Farm Safety Awareness Initiative

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:

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:

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.

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.