Dublin building workers join safety march

Hundreds of building workers marched through Dublin this morning to protest against the high level of deaths and injuries in the industry.

SIPTU officer, Mr Paul Hansard, told

ireland.com

unreasonable deadlines were resulting in health and safety precautions being ignored.

He said deadlines were combining with poor training to create a dangerous working environment for the 176,000 construction workers in the State.

Speaking before the march left Liberty Hall, Mr Hansard, said the Health and Safety Authority does not have the personnel to cover all the sites.

"The number of the HSA inspectors is not adequate for the job. There is 6,000 sites in Dublin and the HSA officers just can cover that number of sites. When they point out what’s wrong the construction companies just carry on regardless after they’ve gone."

Mr Tadgh Kelliher, a 56-year-old carpenter, became the 13th person to die on Irish building sites this year after falling while working on a site with Marbug Construction Ltd, of Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, sub-contractor to John Paul Construction Ltd.

Mr Jim Heffernan, inspector with the HSA said: "Employers, employees and other people visiting construction locations should be aware that construction sites are extremely dangerous and they should be vigilant at all times".

But he added: "24 people died last year as a result of construction related accidents and a further 19 died in 1999. We are just half way through 2001 and already 13 people have been killed in construction related".

This morning’s march concluded at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on Adelaide Road where the Minister of Labour Mr Kitt has his offices.

Mr Peter McCabe, of the Construction Industry Federation said that Construction companies would be spending up to £32 million in developing training and safety programmes over the next two years.

"This is a massive commitment. We aim to give safety training to 130,000 workers. From January 1st 2002, no worker will be able to start work in the industry without our safety pass", he said.

The Department is working on an amendment to the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act (1989). Regulations for the construction industry are contained within the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Act (1995) which is also being updated. A spokesman for the department said the new Bill would provide stiffer penalties for those breaching the law.