Foreign national workers have a higher rate of fatal accidents in the workplace than their Irish counterparts, Minister of State for Labour Affairs Billy Kelleher has said.
Speaking at the launch of the annual report of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) yesterday, Mr Kelleher said last year the death rate of workplace accidents for foreign national workers was 3.2 per 100,000, compared to 2.0 per 100,000 for Irish workers.
In 2005, the figure for foreign nationals was 5.6 fatalities per 100,000 workers, compared to 3.0 per 100,000 for Irish workers. "In 2005, most non-Irish national fatalities occurred in construction but, in 2006, they occurred across economic sectors - a concerning development . . . which the authority is actively addressing," said Mr Kelleher.
HSA chief executive Martin O'Halloran said last year there were 50 work-related fatalities, down from 74 in the previous year.
There had been a "significant and welcome" decrease in construction-related facilities, down from 23 in 2005 to 12 in 2006.
"However, farming remains an extremely dangerous occupation with 18 fatalities in 2006 - the same number as in 2005," he said.
Already this year, six people have been killed in the agriculture sector.
Mr O'Halloran indicated the authority would crack down on companies with a history of not reporting or under-reporting workplace accidents.
"The evidence available to us is that there is widescale under-reporting of accidents and serious incidents.
"It is our belief that under-reporting is a good indicator of a poor safety culture and practice in a firm," said Mr O'Halloran.
A HSA spokesman said firms were obliged to report workplace accidents which resulted in an employee being out of work for more than three days.
He said there appeared to be a mismatch between the number of incidents reported to the authority and the number of people claiming benefit for workplace accidents.
Mr Kelleher pointed out that prosperity must not be at the expense of the health and safety of workers. The 35 per cent reduction in fatality rate last year was welcome "but must only be the start".
He said the death rate in agriculture was "very disturbing".
"The rate has gradually been increasing and, in 2006, there were 18 deaths in agriculture, the highest number of all economic sectors. Elderly workers in this sector are at particular risk - nine of those who died were aged over 65," he said. Of the six people killed on farms this year to date, the youngest was aged 59.
Mr Kelleher said that of the 50 fatalities last year, the most common types were falls from height, which resulted in 10 deaths, and "fall, collapse and breakage of materials", which resulted in nine fatalities.
The most common fatal accidents in agriculture were triggered by loss of control of animals and machinery, which resulted in four deaths each.
"So the actions that are killing people are not obscure or highly technical. They are what many workers would call 'everyday' things.
"This tragic and needless loss of life could be avoided if there was more thought given to safety and an inherent aversion to risk-taking among people.
"This is one of the central messages . . . Everybody needs to think 'safety first'," he said.
