Irish industries will face disciplinary measures if they fail to tackle the millennium bug problem.

At the launch this week of the Health and Safety Authority's (HSA) year 2000 (Y2K) campaign, it was announced that its inspectors' powers have been extended to seek details of employers' Y2K projects.

Inspectors will have the power to shut down firms where they believe employees' safety is threatened by a company's failure to take necessary Y2K measures.

Research figures have shown between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of organisations will experience some kind of failure during the transition to January 1st, 2000. The HSA predicts this may pose a threat to the health and safety of employees if efforts are not made to ensure Y2K compliancy.

At the launch of a new publication, Are you ready for the Millennium Bug?, the HSA expressed concern that key workplace systems - including fire alarms, waste treatment, and video surveillance - would be affected by the millennium bug. Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act every employer is required to ensure "so far as is reasonably practicable the safety, health and welfare at work of his employees".

The HSA, which conducts about 12,000 inspections of workplaces each year, will now be asking employers about their Y2K action programmes. Initially its focus will be on critical bodies - defined as major hazard sites and local authorities - which will be issued with questionnaires about their Y2K projects in the next few weeks. The HSA has said it will monitor these bodies closely, by following up questionnaires with individual site inspections.

Any firm not visited by the HSA will be contacted by inspectors and asked questions about its efforts to ensure the safety of employees during the millennium transition. Employers are likely to be asked for details of their Y2K action programme and its status, and the identity of the project co-ordinator. The inspector may also want to review a copy of the company's risk assessment paperwork, its test programme results and details of upgrade measures.

Where there is a real risk to the health and safety of personnel, but still a reasonable amount of time available, the HSA will instruct companies to come back with a comprehensive Y2K strategy as soon as possible. In more serious cases, it will issue an "improvement notice" giving the company specific instructions to fulfil its Y2K obligations.

Where the HSA believes there is an immediate risk to employees - which is likely to happen from September on - a "prohibition notice" will be issued requesting the cessation of relevant processes. This could in some cases lead to the closure of businesses: for example production lines that may cause injury in the event of a malfunction.

The HSA has also said failure to comply with improvement or prohibition notices, or actual Y2K related incidents, may lead to prosecution.

The HSA is particularly concerned with the efforts of Ireland's 39 local authorities to tackle the problem. Each is responsible for critical services including water supply, waste treatment, and chemical handling. According to Mr Martin Maher, Y2K co-ordinator for the HSA: "There are an awful lot of these bodies, but there is no single person responsible for their Y2K efforts. They have a very critical function that will affect people directly if anything goes wrong."