The Health and Safety Authority has declined to comment on the findings of a consultants' report which describes it as an organisation in crisis and in need of huge change.
The authority, which promotes and enforces workplace safety in all sectors, was heavily criticised in the draft report based on a strategic review which it commissioned.
The report, details of which were given on RTE's Primetime this week, found neither employers nor unions felt the authority was meeting their needs. It recorded "widespread dissatisfaction" with the continued level of under-reporting of workplace accidents.
"It was felt that HSA was not pro-active enough in this area and that it sometimes appeared to act as if it had no function in relation to this area," it said.
The report said the organisation's cultures and values were "characterised by elitism and cliques which essentially revolve around the dual structure of professional and administrative staff".
The organisation was "bedevilled by old baggage and an IR [industrial-relations] dominated internal agenda," it added.
The report found a "strong enforcement ethic", but said it was hard to reconcile this with the authority's actual performance in relation to inspections, notices, prosecutions and, more notably, results.
The review of the authority's operations and organisational structure by Farrell Grant Sparks was carried out over six months up to last March. It was commissioned by the authority, which was set up 10 years ago.