Sir, - The Dublin Council of Trade Unions has written to Mr Tom Kitt, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, unreservedly condemning his failure to re-appoint Mr Eric Fleming of SIPTU construction branch to the board of the Health and Safety Authority.
It is generally accepted that, were it not for the sterling work that Mr Fleming has put into highlighting the scandalous state of safety, health and welfare conditions on building sites, the position would be much worse and would be receiving considerably less attention than it is.
Our council, at its monthly delegate meeting, is given regular reports from shop stewards in the building industry on the dreadful conditions that building workers are expected to endure daily on building sites. By their accounts, the industry is a deadly jungle and it is a miracle that there are not more fatalities being recorded.
Because of the failure of the Health and Safety Authority to protect our members - due to the inadequate resources given over to health and safety - it has fallen upon individual building trades union officials to act as watchdogs in curbing the actions of greedy and irresponsible employers. Despite this, 26 workers were killed in the industry in 1998, compared with 14 in 1997. This, by any standards, is an appalling record.
In spite of this, Mr Fleming - who has been to the fore in spearheading the activities on this vital issue - has, to the shame of Mr Kitt, been silenced as a member of the HSA board at this critical stage.
This does little to inspire confidence in building workers who are daily taking their lives in their hands going to work in the building industry. - Yours, etc., Sam Nolan,
Correspondence Secretary, Dublin Council of Trade Unions, Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin 1.