24/08/2007

Irish Companies Advised To Carry Out Safety Audits

A health and safety organisation, Olive Safety, has issued a warning to companies that non-compliance with health and safety legislation can cost 350% more than the cost of carrying out a safety audit and becoming fully compliant.

Their call came in the wake of figures released by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) which highlighted that there have been 37 fatalities in the workplace this year, only thirteen less than the total for 2006.

The latest figures for non-fatal accidents record that almost 8,000 people were involved in incidents of this kind, costing companies on average €2,750 simply through costs and lost revenue. The latest figures also show that on average Irish companies were fined €27,662 by the HSA in prosecutions.

“The actual cost of carrying out a safety audit and ensuring that a company is fully compliant with the recent legislation is significantly less than the average total cost associated with workplace accidents, fatal and non-fatal incidents,” commented Julian Rafter, General Manager of Olive Safety.

“It’s no longer enough to assume that your company is safety compliant, the SHAW Act 2005 has placed the responsibility on companies themselves to review their safety system at least once annually.”

(CL/SP)

Related Irish News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

12 November 2015
New Patient Safety Reforms Package Announced
A major package of patient safety reforms have been announced by the Minister for Health Leo Varadkar. The new measures include plans to simplify the complaints procedure, enhance the powers of the Ombudsman and HIQA, and a tranche of patient safety legislation.
04 August 2008
Half Of All Businesses Hit By Crime
A survey by the Small Firms Association (SFA) has found 51% of Irish businesses have been victims of crime at least once in the past year. The survey claims there has been an extremely low rate of criminal convictions and also reported that 66% of firms have been victims of crime on two or more occasions.
04 March 2019
New Online Safety Act To Protect Children Online
A new Online Safety Act which aims to improve online safety and ensure that children can be protected online has been announced by the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Richard Bruton. Announcing the new Act to students, parents and teachers at St.
27 November 2015
Annual Drink Driving Campaign Launched By Garda And RSA
Gardaí and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) have launched their annual Christmas and New Year Road Safety Campaign, following a survey that revealed 284,000 drivers admitted to drink driving in the past 12 months. Speaking at the launch of the annual festive road safety campaign, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Mr.
18 November 2008
FSAI Accused Of Keeping "Schtum" Over E.coli Water
Fine Gael's Andrew Doyle has accused Ireland's food safety authority of keeping "schtum" after details emerged the authority knew some of Ireland's bottled water was contaminated with E.coli.