Gardaí and the Health and Safety Authority are investigating the death of a boy (5) in a farming accident in Co Offaly yesterday.

The accident involved a tractor and happened at Ferbane yesterday afternoon.

The child's death brings to 17 the number of people who have died on Irish farms to date this year.

Patrick Donohoe, News Correspondent with the Irish Farmers Journal, said that is more than the total for all of last year:

Last Friday a boy (3) died in an accident involving a JCB on a farmyard in Cork, and last month a boy (2) drowned in a container of water on the family farm in Limerick.

There's growing concern over farm safety after the increase in deaths this year - a quarter of those who lost their lives were children.