An estimated 50,000 people in Northern Ireland are absent from work each year suffering from work-related ill-health, according to the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland. "In addition to the enormous personal suffering that must lie behind this statistic, it is inevitable that such a level of absence from work has far-reaching effects on the local economy," says Mr Liam McBrinn, chairman of the executive. "Latest estimates indicate that it could be costing somewhere in the region of £300 million sterling [€493 million)]."

The executive recently established an occupational health forum to oversee the development of a long-term occupational health strategy for the North. Chaired by Mr McBrinn, the forum includes representatives from the Confederation of British Industry, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, district councils and government departments.

The executive regards the forum's establishment as a significant development towards determining a new workplace health strategy.

"One of the forum's main tasks will be to achieve one of the targets set out in the Northern Ireland Executive's programme for government, to develop an occupational health strategy for Northern Ireland by April 2003," says Mr McBrinn.

It comes against the background of Investing for Health, the current public health consultation paper, which recognises the workplace as a priority-setting for improved health and tackling inequalities in health. Mr McBrinn expects the forum to engage with "as many interested parties as possible" in the coming months to ensure the new occupational health strategy is effective. Mr Dermot Breen, deputy chief executive of the executive, tells The Irish Times that the figure of 50,000 people in Northern Ireland suffering from work-related ill-health is an extrapolation of figures from a 1996 British labour force survey. The absence of accurate statistics is one area that the executive will seek to address in the new occupational health strategy. As in the Republic, it is a legal requirement for employers to notify accidents and cases of ill-health to the enforcement authorities, namely the Health and Safety Authority in this State, and the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland in the North.

While "it's not unique to us in the North here, there's gross under-reporting of accidents. It's very difficult to get an accurate picture", Mr Breen says. The forum will bring together key stakeholders in the area of workplace health. District councils (local authorities) are included in the forum because in Northern Ireland their brief includes aspects of health and safety at work. Some of the key government departments are represented on the forum - namely the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety; the Department of Education, Training and Employment; and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, which sponsors the Health and Safety Executive, a non-departmental public body.

The Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister is also represented. The forum first met on May 9th last. It is scheduled to meet at least four times a year but Mr Breen expects there may be additional meetings. "Its main target is March 2003, when we have to publish the long-term occupational health strategy for Northern Ireland. If we don't meet that, the forum has failed, if you like."

The forum is starting off with a period of discussion and consultation, and will be "quite involved in opening up the debate".

He accepts that not all interested parties are in fact interested. "Some companies are quite forward and progressive in this area [health and safety] and there are others that really haven't given it a moment's thought," he says.

"We would expect the members of the forum, through their network of contacts, to widen out the partnership, and to engage and involve others in the process of developing the strategy. One real way that will manifest itself is through a series of workshops to be organised probably this September, where we will be inviting in the wider interested groups."

The forum will seek to engage with businesses and, for example, with the medical profession and professional health carers. Once it produces the discussion paper in March 2002, it will embark on the public consultation phase.

jmarms@irish-times.ie