Employers have been warned of stiffer penalties for breaches of the health and safety regulations after a 21 per cent increase in accidents at work was revealed. Legislation is already in place to increase the maximum fine on summary conviction from the current £1,000 to £1,500. The Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, is expected to bring the new laws into force before the end of the year.
At the launch of the annual report of the Health and Safety Authority for 1996 yesterday, the chairwoman, Ms Mary Buckley, stressed the need for tougher penalties. She also said more resources were urgently needed for educational and preventative work.
The report shows that the accident rate rose by 21 per cent in 1996, and the number of people who were off work with occupational-related illnesses doubled. In 1996 there were 16,900 accidents, compared with 13,400 in 1995. The number of people with occupational illness rose from 3,500 in 1995 to 7,000 in 1996.
Senior officials of the HSA complained yesterday at the continuing apparent reluctance of the criminal justice system to take safety offences more seriously.
The director general, Mr Tom Walsh, said that the Director of Public Prosecutions was being urged to charge several employers with indictable offences in cases where particularly flagrant violations of the rules had led to fatalities.
Inspection rates by the HSA are up. So far this year, 50 prosecutions have been initiated by the authority, compared with 35 cases heard in the whole of 1996.
The average level of fine imposed in the district courts has also tended to increase. But Ireland has only one inspector per 39,000 people, compared with an EU average of 25,000.
While accident rates are rising, there was a dramatic fall in the number of fatal accidents during 1996. There were 59 last year, compared with 78 in 1995.
However, 1995 was a particularly bad year in agriculture and the fishing industry. But since the establishment of a joint "partnership" venture between the HSA, Teagasc and the Irish Farmers Association, to heighten safety awareness on farms, accident rates are falling sharply.
In 1995 there were 28 farm deaths and 83 accidents, but in 1996 there were only 12 fatalities and 44 accidents.
A similar approach will be tried in other sectors, beginning with transport. This has emerged as by far the most dangerous industrial sector, with a rate of 2,622 accidents per 100,000 people employed. Construction, the next most dangerous industry, has a rate of 1,860 accidents per 100,000.
However, HSA executive member, Mr Eric Fleming, who is also construction industry secretary with SIPTU, says that inspectors are still spending too much time on paper work and too little time on site inspections. He called on Mr Kitt to look in particular at penalty clauses in building contracts, which forced workers to cut corners on safety.
Mr Kitt said he was more than willing to look at the needs of the HSA, and would do his best to ensure it had adequate resources to enforce regulations.