A new website, the Irish section of which was launched in Dublin yesterday, provides economic, scientific and technical information to employers, employees and others concerned about health and safety in the workplace (see below).
The Health and Safety Authority acts as the Irish "focal point" for the new website of the Spanish-based European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
Ms Andrea Lydon is the authority's administrator for the Irish element of the site. She says it will make it easier for employers to find health and safety information such as legislation, training courses or publications. "It's all there, at the touch of a button," she adds. If people don't find relevant information on the Irish section of the site "they can go off exploring what's going on in other parts of the EU and in other parts of the world, once the international section begins to develop", she says.
The website has a discussion section. People with questions about health and safety problems they're encountering at work "could put this out to the whole of Europe and see what kind of responses they get", she says. It should be noted that the site is still under development. "Different countries are at different stages and seem to have different skill levels when it comes to HTML and producing a website. So the Finnish site, for example, is perfect in every way," she says. The Irish section provides a network of information providers like employers' and employees' representatives, research institutes and organisations interested in health and safety.
"So somebody goes into, for example, training. They can find out what training is going on, what training NISO [The National Irish Safety Organisation] is providing, what training IBEC is providing. It's the same with legislation. About 70 per cent of Irish health and safety legislation is available in full text - it's a link to the HSA site." The Spanish-based agency site has details of other organisations' publications.
Its website enables you to compare legislation in Ireland with another EU state or to check relevant EU directives. It is also useful for comparing different areas of research in Ireland or elsewhere in the EU.
The agency is trying to foster links internationally to make the website into an occupational health and safety information gateway, she says. The home page has a tool bar with the subject areas covered in the site on the left-hand side. On the right hand side, you will see another tool bar with the different European countries.
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work website: http://europe.osha.eu.int/
Health and Safety Authority website: http://www.hsa.ie/osh
Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland website: www.hse-ni.org.uk
jmarms@irish-times.ie
