Almost 11,000 Investigations And Inspections Carried Out By HSA In 2015

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) carried out almost 11,000 workplace inspections and investigations in 2015, with more than half involving the construction and agriculture sectors.

The figures are contained with the HSA's Annual Report for 2015 and Statistic Summary for 2014 - 2015.

The reports shows that a total of 10,880 workplace inspections and investigations were carried out; 3.932 in the construction sector and 3,056 in agriculture. The manufacturing sector received the third highest number of inspections with 1,108 carried out.

Other key figures include:

• 11% of all inspections and investigations were due to a fatality, serious accident, complaint or dangerous occurrence

• 13% of inspections and investigations were carried out under chemicals legislation

• 5% were return inspections due to low compliance

• 9% of all inspections and investigations resulted in formal enforcement action (489 improvement notices and 488 prohibition notices issued)

There were 16 successful prosecutions concluded for health and safety breaches and fines of €541,750 were imposed.

There was also an extensive programme of support, advice and communications during 2015 with almost 7,000 additional businesses signing up to BeSMART.ie, the Authority's online safety management tool. This means there are now over 30,000 businesses benefiting from the resource. E-learning also increased last year with over 13,000 new courses taken on hsalearning.ie.

Minister for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen, who has workplace safety and health as part of his brief, said: "This report and the accompanying summary of workplace accident, illness and injury statistics illustrates the broad scope of the work of the Health and Safety Authority and its importance from both a social and economic perspective.

"We must protect workers while at the same time enabling enterprise to thrive. The Authority plays a vital role in promoting a safe and healthy work environment in all types of employment. Looking at the accident, injury and illness statistics it's clear that while accidents are reducing in most sectors, we have to strengthen efforts to improve safety and prevent accidents in agriculture."

(MH/CD)