The launch of a £500,000 health and safety awareness campaign aimed at farms and building sites was marred yesterday by the news that an eight-year-old boy had been killed the previous night in a farm accident in Co Tipperary.
The boy has been named as James Quinlan, of Gilbertstown, Holycross, Thurles. He died on the family farm in an accident involving a tractor.
The farmyard is the most dangerous of Irish workplaces and in the last five years 106 people have lost their lives there, 27 of them children.
The figure was described as "truly frightening" by the Minister of State for Labour, Trade and Consumer Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt.
To raise awareness of the problems, Mr Kitt made finance available for a television, radio and poster campaign to reduce deaths on farms and building sites, which together accounted for 60 per cent of fatal workplace accidents last year.
During the announcement at Dublin Castle, Mr Eric Fleming, the branch secretary of the Dublin Construction and Allied Trades Branch of ITGWU, complained that there was "too much carrot and not enough stick in the campaign".
He sympathised with the family of the dead boy in Tipperary. He added that he also wanted to sympathise with the family of a construction worker who was killed on a building site and buried last week.
He said one of the largest demolition firms in the city was sending its workers into situations where there was asbestos without informing them, and although the union had complained on two occasions, nothing had happened.
Later, he told reporters that unless building contractors were imprisoned or fined heavily there would be no improvement in the situation.
He said the inspection rate was too low because there were not enough inspectors.
Mr Frank Cunneen, chairman of the Health and Safety Authority, said the theme of the campaign, "Accidents don't happen by accident", was well based in truth and he was happy that the authority had funding for it.
Irish farms were the only workplaces in the country where children were at risk, and in 1999 alone, nine children and 14 adults lost their lives and around 2,000 people required treatment in hospital following farm accidents.
He said that in the coming week, inspectors from the authority would carry out inspections on 400 farms and all the resources of the organisation would focus on the sector.
He said the second part of the campaign would focus on the construction industry, which gives direct employment to over 160,000 workers and indirect employment to over 200,000 people.
Last year, he said, 18 people were killed on building sites and thousands injured in accidents on sites.
The number of deaths was disproportionate to the number of people employed, he said.