Quinn Group, the cement and industrial firm, has been fined £10,000 sterling (€16,603) after pleading guilty to five counts of failing to provide safe plant and systems of work brought by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland.
Summonses were issued to the group following an inspection of its sand and gravel-washing plant near Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, last August. It was found that safety guards were not properly in place, including those relating to conveyors and ball mills.
At the hearing in Enniskillen Magistrates' Court yesterday, a representative for the Health and Safety Executive said some guards had not been fitted "for a considerable period of time".
He said the executive had issued verbal and written instructions and, on various occasions, had met management from the company, which has suffered two fatal work-related accidents from the inadequate guarding of equipment. Mr Tony McGettigan, of P.J. Flanagan Solicitors, for the Quinn Group, said on that occasion the two employees responsible for health and safety issues at the firm were not on site.
He claimed those who posed the greatest danger to industrial safety were "the workers themselves". He said that despite management efforts to instil safety consciousness, it was sometimes a case of "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink".
The charges all related to problems at a particular location on a particular day and no accident had occurred as a result, he concluded: "My client does not take a cavalier attitude to health and safety."
Resident Magistrate Mr Brian McElholm suggested the importance of health and safety in the workplace needed "to be made explicit". He fined the Quinn Group £2,000 sterling on each of the five counts.
