Healthy,
safe and
productive lives
and enterprises

Minister Bruton launches HSA annual Report and Statistics Summary

11% decrease in workplace deaths during 2012

Tuesday 28th May

The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, has today (Tuesday 28th May) launched the Health and Safety Authority’s 2012 Annual Report and Statistics Summary for 2011 - 2012.

The key themes highlighted in the 2012 Annual Report were;

  • There were 48 work-related deaths reported to the Authority in 2012, an 11% decrease from the 54 reported in 2011. Of these fatalities, 42 involved workers. 22 of the fatalities in 2012 involved self-employed persons (similar to    2011), including 17 farmers.
  • 13,835 workplace inspections and investigations were carried out in 2012 (5% higher than originally targeted). 6% of inspections resulted in formal enforcement action taken.
  • The Construction and Agriculture sectors had the highest number of inspections, with 3,932 & 3,136 respectively. This was in line with the Authority’s risk based approach to resource allocation.
  • There were 20 prosecutions concluded with sentence and fines totalling €425,000 and an 18-month suspended imposed.
  • There were over 11,000 businesses using the free safety management tool ‘BeSMART’ by December 2012.The ‘Taking Care of Business’ initiative for small and medium enterprises continued to provide information and advice to the sector.
  • As part of the Authority’s chemicals regulation programme, a joint initiative with the      National Poison Centre helped initiate an industry led ‘voluntary product stewardship programme’ regarding detergent liquitabs and incidents with children. This involves commitments to change the packaging to reduce the visibility of the capsules and restrict access to the capsules by small children.

The key themes highlighted in the Statistics Summary for 2011 – 2012 were;

  • The worker fatality rate, as at 31 December 2012, was 2.3 per 100,000 workers.
  • There were 6,619 non-fatal injuries reported in 2012, representing a 5% decrease in the      numbers reported, for the second year running.
  • The Human Health and Social Work sector recorded the highest number of non-fatal injuries reported (20%). The Manuafacturing sector was the next highest with 17% of      reports.
  • As in previous years manual handling injuries were the most common non-fatal injury account for approximately one third of all injuries. Slips, trips and falls was the second most common accident trigger (18%)

Speaking after the reports had been launched, Minister Bruton said:

“Every workplace fatality is avoidable and represents a terrible tragedy for a family and a community, and combating workplace fatalities and injuries represents a huge challenge for both the HSA and employers.

“It is clear from the content of these reports that a lot has been achieved during 2012, and I would like to commend the Staff and Board of the Authority on the continued quality and volume of their work. Significant gains have been made in the area of occupational safety and health and chemicals regulation since the Authority’s establishment in 1989. Each year standards are steadily increasing and hopefully over the next few years we will maintain those gains and see sustained reductions in accidents, particularly in the agriculture sector.”

Martin O’Halloran, CEO of the Authority, said, “I am pleased at the way that we have been able to vary our approach to gain maximum impact in relation to workplace safety and health and chemicals regulation. The use of guidance, advice and assistance as the primary tools of engagement means that formal enforcement and prosecutions are taken only when necessary. It also conveys an important message, we want to work with all enterprises, but those that disregard the safety and health of workers will be penalised.”

The Chairman of the Health and Safety Authority, Michael Horgan, said that he is confident that many employers can see the benefits of good safety and health practices. “The feedback we have received from many stakeholders in relation to our activities has been positive. We are encouraged to spend more time lessening the administrative burden when we can see a willingness for self-compliance.”

Copies of the reports can be downloaded from http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Publications_and_Forms/Publications/Corporate/