Concern voiced at absence of safety rules for funfairs

THE body of the young mother killed in the Tipperary funfair accident was taken to her local church yesterday evening.

The burial of Ms Marese Egan (2), from Springfield, Borrisokane, will take place after 11 a.m. Mass today in the graveyard adjoining Ardcroney church.

Her removal took place as gardai and spokes people for organisations concerned with safety voiced concern about the absence of regulations covering funfairs.

Ms Egan died on Sunday from head injuries when the "chair oplane" scat on her funfair ride broke from the machine and was flung to the ground.

Her four year old daughter, Samantha, who was with her at the time, is being treated for head injuries in Nenagh Hospital. A spokeswoman described her condition as stable.

A senior figure involved in investigating the circumstances of the tragedy said it had "brought to the fore the fact that there are no regulations governing these operations".

There is no licensing system for funfairs, it emerged, no system of standards and enforcement and no compulsion on fair operators to take out insurance.

The absence of regulation applies to small fairs such as the one that formed part of the village festival at Borrisokane at the weekend, and large scale amusement fairs, said a source.

The Director of Consumer Affairs, Mr William Fagan, said what was needed was a licensing system whereby certain minimum standards would be required prior to the granting of a licence.

Local authorities could be in charge of granting the licences as they would have the expertise needed for inspecting what are "industry type machines", Mr Fagan said.

It did not fall within the ambit of his office to police such services as funfairs.

Mr Brendan Neville of the National Safety and Health (known as the Health and Safety Authority), said that as the correct name of his organisation implies, worker protection was the "core" of its business.

While workers were obliged under the law not to cause risk to the public, this applied more to a hole in the ground being fenced than to a "product" such as a funfair ride, he said.

A report on the Borrisokane tragedy was being drafted. "It could be that when we see the report it will be outside the rem it of our legislation, so there may be nothing we can do", Mr Neville said.

Canon James Madden, who gave the last rites to Ms Madden, said it seemed to him the bar that broke and sent the funfair chair hurtling to the ground broke at a point where it had been pierced by bolts. "It went at the weakest point, it seemed to me".

A Garda source said the people who operated the fair were "really shocked by what has happened. They are not in a fit state to talk about it".