Boliden Tara Mines Ltd has been fined €350,000 for a breach of health and safety legislation in relation to an accident at its mine in Navan where one of its miners was killed.
In a statement read to Trim Circuit Court yesterday, the family of Noel O'Neill said: "We are still waiting for him to come home."
Mr O'Neill (57), a father of four from Grennanstown, Athboy, was the second member of his family to die in an accident at the mine; the last previous death had been of his brother, Martin, in 1988.
The court heard that Noel O'Neill was underground and operating a drill on frozen or unstable ground between two tunnels. He died when the ground collapsed and he fell into a void on the afternoon of June 21st, 2005. As a result the company now has barriers and warning signs around such ground.
The prosecution was on foot of an investigation by the Health and Safety Authority and its inspector, Manus Tiernan, told the court: "If barricades had been in place, he would have been outside the danger zone and possibly be alive today". State prosecutor Jonathan Kilfeather said the ground was shattered but would have appeared to be in one piece and was by nature unstable.
Mr Tiernan said that in an effort to try and remove this shattered or frozen ground, the company used further blasting as well as water, but they were unsuccessful and the decision was taken to move to a new area.
It was in this area the deceased was working.
A statement read to the court said the devastation caused to his wife, three daughters and one son "is unknown to a lot of people and has changed our lives completely".
They suffer from stress and his widow, Ann, no longer sleeps, has not returned to work and no longer socialises. "We are still waiting for him to come home. The loss is unbearable," it said.
The company pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain suitable equipment such as chain barricades for the isolation of unstable ground as was necessary to ensure the safety and health of its employees.
The guilty plea was entered on its behalf by managing director Bert-Ove Johansson and accepted by the State on the basis that the full facts of the investigation be given.