The creation of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work in Bilbao, Spain, a few years ago has clouded the role of the Dublin-based European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.

Now celebrating its 25th year, the Irish foundation describes itself as a European body that provides the EU institutions, governments, employers, trade unions and non-governmental organisations with the practical information that policymakers need to meet the challenges of employment, equal opportunities, health and wellbeing, social cohesion, sustainable development and participation.

It disseminates information through a free newsletter, publications and electronic databases, and it participates in and organises briefings, conferences, seminars and workshops. For instance, the foundation published the comprehensive Second European Survey on Working Conditions in 1997.

Asked to comment on the quality and usefulness of its publications, Mr Tony Briscoe, assistant director of social policy at IBEC, says: "I wouldn't in any way suggest that the quality of the work is questionable, but the usability and the practicality of a lot of the work doesn't tend to be made that great use of. Probably that's due in part to it not always being user-friendly."

In an interview with The Irish Times, the recently appointed director of the Loughlinstown, Co Dublin foundation, Dr Raymond-Pierre Bodin, agreed that some of its publications did not meet its user-friendly criteria, but plans were in place to address this.

The foundation's mission is very simple, he says. "We are the think-tank of the social actors in Europe. I don't say the social partners. Our work, our research, our products have to be useful, not only for unions, not only for employers' associations but also for R&D, for citizens and for politicians.

"We are not only a collector of information. We collect information, we organise information, we work on this information and we produce orientations based on investigations."

The foundation is "not only a mail box"; its "added-value" is it analyses, he says.

The foundation must be more open to employers, workers and politicians in Ireland, he says. "I was angry when I saw the situation of the foundation and its relationship with the Irish environment. We are the European Foundation but we are in Ireland.

"One of my other priorities is to develop our relationship with politicians, employers and so on in Ireland. We say in France `The cobbler's son has the worst shoes' and maybe the worst relationship we have is with the Irish and Ireland."

His message to employers and workers is that the foundation is at their service.

Mr Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, director of the Spanish-based European Agency for Safety and Health at Work says the agency was established to implement the European directives. Its focus is on information and on transforming legislation into practice. He sees the Dublin foundation as "one of the so-called first generation agencies" with a broader focus on living and working conditions, broader than safety and health issues alone.

"When we were established and I was to take up my post three and a half years ago, the first thing I did was to meet with the former director of the Dublin foundation in order to discuss how we on the one hand, could avoid duplication of work and on the other hand, could ensure a positive supplementation. The field of safety and health at work is so broad and the needs so strong that no doubt there is room for many different players to contribute."

One of the agency's strategic goals is to develop "a kind of encyclopaedic stock of information related to health and safety at work. This is what we primarily do on our website," he says.

"We do not regard ourselves as a research institution. We are an information institution. We provide information services. Our primary aim is to add value to what we collect. It's not enough just to collect and pass on information. Information has to be systematised, prepared, assessed, analysed and then brought forward in ways that people that are the target groups can understand and make use of it. Our success is if people find our information useful.

"Our target group are actually real companies. So what we want to do is provide them with information that works."

European Foundation website: www.eurofound.ie; European Agency website: http://europe.osha.eu.int. jmarms@irish-times.ie