Madam, - We are delighted that a national newspaper has come out so positively on the side of construction workers, whose health and safety are put at risk daily.
Your Editorial of August 7th was exceptional in its condemnation of the lack of safety precautions on many building sites - an issue which is usually the subject of newspaper columns only when there has been a major catastrophe.
SIPTU has campaigned over many years with our fellow unions to highlight the fact that it is not possible for building employers to assure workers that they could come to work and return home in one piece - or even alive.
At the height of our efforts, when the Government and the employers were on the rack, commitments were given to rectify the situation. Our demand for a partnership between Government, employers and unions on safety was finally conceded. It was our hope that much more would follow and we must acknowledge that the introduction of new training measures were a radical step in what now appears to be a long journey to make serious inroads into this problem.
But now, the Health & Safety Authority is attempting to reduce by 50 per cent its target number for sites visits. Our call to follow the successful lead of other countries by introducing a back-up network of health and safety advisers to complement the work of the H&SA has largely been ignored. After so many deaths, not one culprit has been sent to jail and substantial penalties against marauding builders have been very few.
We will continue to work with our counterparts in the industry to reduce the number of accidents and deaths on building sites, but unless radical steps are taken, more lives will be lost.
It is in the light of this mammoth struggle we salute The Irish Times for such an honest and frank Editorial. - Yours, etc.,
ERIC FLEMING, Secretary, SIPTU Dublin Construction Branch, Liberty Hall, Dublin 1.