The imposition of fines of £240,000 on a construction company and its director for failing to adhere to safety regulations at a building site in Kildare, which resulted in the deaths of two men, has been broadly welcomed.
The judgment was hailed by the Health and Safety Authority as "a milestone in the drive to reduce the number of workplace accidents". It said a record fine had been imposed.
The outcome of the case at Naas Circuit Court, which followed parallel investigations by the Health and Safety Authority and the Garda S∅ochβna into the deaths of Mr Robert Dunne and Mr Sean Treacy on July 20th, 1998, at a building site in Newbridge, was also welcomed by the family of one of the victims.
Mr William Treacy, a brother of Mr Sean Treacy, said: "If it serves to save somebody else's life it was a good day's work . . . Safety has to be made a high priority on sites." A sister of Mr Dunne, Ms Maureen Gibbons, attended the hearing but did not wish to comment afterwards.
The men died when a trench in which they were working collapsed on top of them. Both men were single. Mr Treacy was in his 50s and Mr Dunne in his 30s. The director general of the Health and Safety Authority, Mr Tom Beegan, said last night the case was a tragedy for all concerned and highlighted the enormous human and financial cost of workplace accidents for employers, workers and their families.
"The message which must go out today to employers in all sectors, and not just the construction industry, is that they have a statutory obligation to pro-actively manage safety in the workplace including the preparation of an adequate safety statement," he said.
Mr Michael Henry, of the authority, said the authority's inspectors had this year found it necessary to issue 600 prohibition notices on sites where serious contraventions of safety regulations were found.
"We still find that a lot of employers aren't taking the message on board," he said.
He said yesterday's Circuit Court judgment and the comments of Judge Raymond Groarke in relation to the ad-hoc way in which health and safety was treated gave a very clear message that the management of health and safety right throughout a project, had to be top of the list.
Mr Eric Fleming, secretary of the construction branch of SIPTU, said he visited the Newbridge site two hours after the men died and it was a "death trap".
"I'm delighted that at last somebody in the courts has begun to listen to us.
"It's not enough in that the people are gone, but at least the message goes out that the courts are beginning to take us seriously," he said.
"There are a lot of people who have lost their husbands, fathers or brothers and it doesn't really mean much to them because they have lost their loved ones, but the people in the building industry out there who have been vulnerable to this for years welcome this."
There have been 18 fatal accidents in the construction sector this year.