Irish workers have lowest rate of injury in EU, says HSA
Injuries and ill-heath among workers in Ireland have declined by 15% in the past five years.
However, 65 people lost their lives last year in workplace accidents.
The authority carried out 10,700 workplace visits and prosecuted 76 individuals and organisations in the courts.
HSA chairman Frank Cunneen said: “Year on year we are seeing more and more cases of serious breaches being referred to the higher courts, which reflects our belief that disregard for basic health and safety is a serious matter.”
About 15 of the prosecutions were taken to the higher courts, where penalties are more severe, compared to none in 1999.
Those convicted of offences included five public sector organisations.
The HSA persuaded cement manufacturers to reduce the weight of standard cement bags from 50 kilograms to 25 kilograms. It said this would cut down manual handling injuries among workers.
The number of calls to the HSA’s information line doubled from 12,000 in 2002 to 24,000 last year.
The HSA has drawn up a report to investigate fatal accidents in the construction industry, which will be published later this year.
At the report’s launch, Minister for Labour Affairs Frank Fahey said the number of deaths in the farming and construction sectors was unacceptably high.
“In the last few months we’ve had terribly tragic accidents, particularly in the farming sector. We’ve got to get the people, if they are criminally responsible, into the courts quickly and get a meaningful explanation to the general public as to why the accident happened.”
The Government-approved new health and safety legislation will include fines in the district court of up to €3,000 and up to six months’ imprisonment.
Offenders taken to the circuit courts can be fined up to €3 million and jailed for up to two years.
“We’re not going to tolerate people who are not prepared to apply health and safety standards,” said Mr Fahey.
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