Today (June 8th) is the start of Phase 2 easing of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Some restrictions have been considerably eased such as travelling distance has now increased from 5km to anywhere in your own county (it was originally to be 20km) and more businesses are allowed to open their doors to the public. With the extra travel distance allowed this should bring more visitors to our parks and gardens.

Since golf courses reopened they have seen a big influx of people playing the fairways again. Travelling anywhere within your county should see even more golfers returning to play the game. Greenkeepers and their machines will be back to full operation mode. We are on our way to an almost normal life but there is still a long way to go. Thankfully, the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in Ireland is falling rapidly. Long may it continue.

This week I want to turn your attention to farm and garden safety. This is the time of year when most accidents occur and users of equipment must be vigilant. Service dealers should (and many do) make a point of informing their custumers of the risks associated with the machines they sell to them and also of the precautions and safety guidelines needed to operate and maintain the equipment safely.

On that point I was shocked to see on the news last week, as many other people were, the videos posted online of people carrying out stunts using agricultural machines. Tractor racing on a public road; standing on the drawbar of a tractor while moving; a man sitting on the front of a tractor as it drives through a field at speed; men sitting in the bucket of a digger as it rotated quickly, and a quad being driven up a steep embankment and almost overturning in the process. These are just some of the examples of the stupidity that people can get up to.

What made it worse was that they thought it was all a bit of fun and decided that it would be a great idea to film themselves and put them up online for the world to see. Already, there have been eight farm fatalities recorded so far this year (and eight heartbroken families). These type of videos don’t help in reducing the number. I was delighted to see on the same news bulletin, several dealers and distributors condeming the actions, along with farming associations and organisations.

Up to now we have been blessed with fine weather. This normally encourages people to go out gardening but if you add in the lockdown and isolation with the glorious weather, there has been a noticeable surge of people doing work in their gardens. Lawn mowing, rotovating the vegetable plot, hedge clipping, strimming are just some of the things being done, leading to an increase in demnand for garden equipment. This is much needed good news for dealers and distributors around the country, many of whom have been closed for 2 months and have just recently opened.

Some of the dealers I have been talking to say that their business is returning and doing reasonably well again. A warm and sunny summer ahead is needed to keep this trend continuing.