HSA considering commercial remit
The HSA, which is the national statutory body for enforcing occupational safety legislation, is one of the first non-commercial state bodies examining the possibility of developing its services both in Ireland and overseas to generate additional revenue.
The HSA is to conduct a feasibility study over the next few months that will examine how it could develop its “own income”.
It generated around €300,000 in income last year from a budget of €24.6 million through driver-training courses, processing fees, seminars, witness expenses and sales of HSA publications.
Assistant chief executive Mary Dorgan said the authority is examining the potential of engaging in commercial opportunities as part of the programme of public sector reform.
“We have developed expertise in services like the promotion of health and safety and prevention of accidents in the workplace as well as training, so we are looking at how they might generate additional revenue,” Ms Dorgan said.
She stressed that any future commercial services would have to be conducted in such a way that no conflict of interest could arise through the performance of its statutory inspection and enforcement roles.
Under the modernisation plan, the HSA predicts that it could raise up to €15,000 through the provision of seminars in specialist areas.
Ms Dorgan said the HSA had issued a tender to conduct a feasibility study to examine the scale of the revenue that could be generated by engaging in more commercial activity.
She claimed there were no real barriers to such a development, as the HSA was allowed to develop commercial services under existing legislation.
However, any move by the HSA towards greater commercialisation would probably face some resistance from both trade unions and potential competitors involved in health and safety training.
