Another Dublin building site was shut down yesterday after the High Court heard of a series of health and safety breaches by Cruson Developments Ltd. The judge was told the company had a very poor safety record. It was said to have flouted safety regulations for years and had been convicted of three criminal offences contrary to the 1989 Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act and Regulations.
An interim injunction against the company shutting down its operations in Cathal Brugha Street until specified measures have been taken to reduce the risk to safety and health was secured by Mr Fergal Foley, acting on behalf of the National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health.
Mr Robert Roe, a NAOSH inspector, in an affidavit read to the court said he inspected a construction site last Monday in Cathal Brugha Street, where Mr Larry O'Sullivan had fallen from a height three days earlier.
He found a significant absence of safety on the site coupled with a shocking heedlessness of management in breaching the 1995 Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations. The company, Cruson Development Ltd, did not appoint a competent person as project supervisor for the construction stage of the project, while the actual person appointed project supervisor had not included in the safety and health plan specific measures concerning work involving particular risks.
Adequate measures were not taken to prevent those at work being struck by falling material, materials were not stacked to prevent their collapsing or overturning, and all practicable precautions were not taken to prevent danger to people at work through the collapse of any part of the building.
Mr Roe found a scaffold had been erected by untrained workers, that scaffolding was not properly strutted or braced to prevent collapse and was not rigidly connected to the building, and that ladders used were not secure.
Mr Roe said he found that each side of a platform from which a worker was likely to fall more than two metres was not provided with a suitable guard-rail.
Finally, he found that suitable and sufficient safety harnesses, safety belts or other suitable and sufficient safety equipment were not used on the site.
Mr Roe said the risk to the health and safety of those working on the site was so serious that its use as a place of work should be prohibited immediately until specified measures are taken to reduce the risk to a reasonable level.
Miss Justice Laffoy granted the interim injunction shutting down the site and adjourned the case until next Wednesday.