Local authorities are to be targeted for health and safety inspections this year after almost 50 per cent were found not to be in compliance with their legal obligations.
Their poor record was featured yesterday in the annual report of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), which recorded a 25 per cent rise in workplace fatalities last year.
The increase was described as "alarming" and "very worrying" by Minister of State for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen. A particular concern raised by the HSA was the disproportionate number of fatalities among migrant workers, particularly in the construction industry.
Foreign nationals were three times as likely as Irish workers to be killed on building sites in Ireland, said the authority's chief executive, Tom Beegan.
Other areas of "particular concern" highlighted by the authority in its report were:
The continuing poor record of the construction and agriculture sectors.
The unprecedented number of fatalities in quarrying and mining.
The high number of fatalities among elderly workers in farming.
Of the 73 people killed in the workplace last year, 18 were in agriculture, which had the worst record of any sector, as in 2003 and 2004. There were more deaths in construction, but there are far more workers in this sector than in agriculture.
A quarter of farms visited by HSA inspectors were found to have "limited or no compliance" with health and safety legislation.
Local authorities were also found to have a poor compliance record, and a worse one than 2004.
Last year the HSA conducted 227 inspections in the public administration sector, concentrating "on the manner in which county managers and directors of services dealt with their safety management responsibilities".
Only 53 per cent of local authorities were found to be in "full or broad compliance" with the law, while 23 per cent were recorded as being in "some compliance", and 24 per cent in "limited or no compliance".
"Accordingly, the authority will target local authorities for enforcement action in 2006," the report said.
Of the 73 people killed in workplaces, 64 were workers. Nine of the 64 were foreign nationals, and five of these worked in construction.
"This represents a fatality rate of 22.1 per 100,000 for non-Irish national workers, compared to a rate of 7 per 100,000 Irish workers in the construction sector," the HSA said in a statement accompanying the report.
Mr Killeen said the "extraordinarily high level" of fatalities among migrant workers was unacceptable. He was aware that this was one of the areas the authority was focusing on.
HSA chief executive Tom Beegan said a meeting of all the stakeholders involved in the construction industry had been convened for May 24th to address continuing safety problems.
Construction industry fatalities increased last year by eight to 23, the highest level since 1998. More than 6,000 inspections of construction sites were carried out, and 28 per cent of sites were found to have "limited or no compliance" with the law. A total of 55 per cent were found to be in "full or broad compliance", a slight improvement from 2004, the report said.
Mr Beegan defended the authority's record in enforcing health and safety legislation.
Despite the high levels of non-compliance uncovered by its inspectors, the HSA completed just 40 prosecutions last year, securing convictions in 85 per cent of cases. Mr Beegan said that as well as prosecutions, the authority applied a range of other enforcement measures, including closing workplaces and issuing of prohibition notices. The rate of injuries causing more than three days' absence from work has remained "relatively steady" since 2002, 11 to 12 per 1,000 workers, the report said. However, illness causing more than three days' absence has been increasing steadily since 2001, from 8.6 to 12.4 per 1,000.