The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) is to investigate the latest farm death, which took place in Co Wexford at the weekend.
The body of a 47-year-old farmer was found by his brother at 1 a.m. yesterday morning at Arnestown, Foulksmills, near New Ross. The victim had been cutting grass and it appeared he had been involved in an accident with the grass-cutting machine.
He was last seen alive at 4 p.m. on Saturday but his body was not found until his brother went searching for him early yesterday morning.
A Garda spokesman said the man would not be named until his relatives had been informed.
There has been a major drive this year by the HSA, agriculture and food development board Teagasc, farm organisations and insurance companies to reduce the number of fatal accidents on farms. Figures for the first six months of the year shown that Ireland was heading for a record year for farm deaths.
Eleven people had lost their lives in accidents by the end of June - only two less than the number killed on farms in the whole of 2002. However, despite the rise in farm deaths there was some consolation in the fact that there had been a marked decrease in the number of deaths of children on farms. For many years farmyards have been Ireland's most dangerous workplaces, but there has been a major drive to reduce deaths.
A five-year plan to tackle accidents and fatalities on Irish farms, which have claimed the lives of 200 people in the past decade, was set up earlier this year. It set out to address the fact that 32 per cent of all workplace fatalities occurred in the agricultural sector, despite that sector accounting for less than 10 per cent of the workforce.
Mr Frank Laffey of Teagasc said it was very unfortunate that 43 children died in the past decade.