THE GOVERNMENT has approved the drafting of a law to make corporate bodies criminally liable for deaths they cause, with heavy fines and prison sentences.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern was given approval at this week’s Cabinet meeting to prepare legislation for the introduction of two new criminal offences in this area.
The offence of corporate manslaughter would mean that criminal liability for fatalities would be attributed to the corporate entity, with appropriately harsh monetary penalties.
A further offence of “grossly negligent management causing death” would provide for criminal liability to be attributed to an individual serving in a senior managerial role within the corporate entity and could result in a prison sentence.
The proposals take into account recommendations of the Law Reform Commission's 2005 Report on Corporate Killing.
The proposed offences would be wide in scope encompassing not just culpable deaths in the workplace but all situations where a corporation or unincorporated body was responsible for a fatality including through the sale of dangerous products or the provision of a service.
A spokesman for the Minister said Mr Ahern was “strongly of the view that the laws must be robust in this area”.
The spokesman added: “While the criminal law route should only be used where death has occurred as a result of flagrant abuse of the safety standards expected of companies and their managers, it is desirable that the criminal law would reflect the strength of societal disapproval for such egregious events.”
The Law Reform Commission report said existing liability mechanisms in tort and health and safety legislation were insufficient to articulate the abhorrence of society regarding manslaughter.
The commission recommended that in the case of a conviction for corporate manslaughter, the sentencing court should have the power to impose an unlimited fine.
The commission also recommended other sentencing options, notably remedial orders, community service orders and adverse publicity orders, as it is not possible to impose a custodial sentence on a corporate entity.
For the derivative offence of grossly negligent management causing death, the commission recommended that a high managerial agent of the corporate entity could, on conviction, face a prison sentence of 12 years and the option of an unlimited fine.
The commission also recommended it should be open to the court to disqualify a convicted managerial agent from acting in a managerial capacity in an undertaking for such period as the court sees fit.
In a draft Bill contained in the report this was given as a period not exceeding 15 years.
The proposed legislation would have implications for the suppliers of goods and services as well as employers, whose duty to their employees is already covered by health and safety legislation.
Gross negligence would involve recklessness as to the danger in an act or omission, when the danger would have been obvious to any reasonable person.
The commission’s report identified a number of instances where organisational failures in Ireland caused death. These included the Blood Transfusion Service Board, which breached its own rules when it failed to investigate complaints properly and to recall contaminated batches of blood product, leading to the infection of large numbers of people; and the Stardust nightclub fire, where serious omissions led to the deaths of 48 people. Similar failures to apply best practice contributed to the Whiddy Island disaster in 1979 and the rail crashes at Buttevant and Cherryville.