Labour Affairs Minister Tony Killeen today urged the construction sector to renew its commitment to reduce workplace deaths and injuries.
A total of 23 building workers died last year making the industry the most dangerous place to work in after farming, it was revealed today.
The industry employed more than 240,000 workers in 2005 - an increase of 70,000 since 2001- and built more than 80,000 homes.
Mr Killeen said a whole new set of challenges was emerging from this success and suggested that the industry now had the opportunity to be the first to embrace new occupational health and safety regulations.
Mr Killeen said the new Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations Act, due to be signed into law in the next three months, will plug loopholes so that construction bosses can't cut corners on worker safety.
"We must also take account of the changes in the workplace arising from use of new technologies, the growing number of non-Irish national workers on work sites, through the increasingly mobile nature of the workforce and the changing nature of the accidents and injuries suffered on sites, to name but a few," Mr Killeen said.
Mr Killeen was speaking at the Construction Safety Summit in Dublin, which was jointly organised by the Construction Industry Federation, Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Health & Safety Authority.
On-the-spot fines will be introduced soon under regulations currently being prepared by the Health & Safety Authority.
Mr Killeen also took the opportunity to pay tribute to the unions for their work in raising health and safety awareness in the workplace.