The agriculture and construction industries had the highest number of deaths last year, accounting for 48 of 70 accidents at work, according to the Health and Safety Authority's annual report, published in Dublin yesterday.
The figures compare with a total of 48 people killed at work in 1997. Last year there were 22 deaths in the construction industry and 26 in agriculture, up from 15 in each industry in 1997.
The industries employ 17 per cent of the workforce yet have accounted for 69 per cent of deaths in the workplace, the report said.
Mr Frank Cunneen, chairman of the HSA, described the figures as "totally unacceptable". He said he intended to research the reasons for the high incidence of accidents.
The industries would be targeted over the next three years with the objective of minimising fatalities, he added.
Presenting the report, the Minister of State for Labour, Mr Tom Kitt, said some employers had not treated safety obligations seriously.
"Such complacency is not acceptable," he said. He had met representatives from the industries, he said, to discuss ways of solving the problem.
Commenting on the figures, Mr Peter McCabe, director of safety, environment and training services with the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), said most deaths had not occurred on CIF members' sites.
"But we are still concerned," he said. "We've got to work with the HSA and the unions, not simply on enforcement, but in seeing whether construction companies need advice and assistance."
Mr Cunneen said the number of deaths "should not blind us to the importance of preventing other accidents and injuries".
The number of workplace accidents rose again last year, from 5,670 in 1997 to 6,512 last year. There were 5,246 accidents at work in 1996.
The majority last year, 1,811, were caused by handling, lifting or carrying.
Accidents were also caused by contact with moving machinery parts (387), malicious injury by another person (219) and drowning or asphyxiation (14).
Mr Kitt said he was making representation to Government for an increase in resources for the authority. The number of staff increased last year, and 11,335 workplace inspections were made, compared with 11,156 in 1997 and 10,944 in 1992.
Some 55 prosecutions were made against workplace management or owners for failure to comply with safety regulations. This compares with 24 in 1995, 35 in 1996 and 39 in 1997. Eighty-nine per cent of last year's prosecutions resulted in convictions.
The report lists each company prosecuted. The highest fine was imposed on Chadwicks Ltd on December 18th last year.
The Dublin scaffolding supplier was fined £3,000 at Dublin District Court for breaches of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989.
The case arose from a site inspection following a fatal accident in July 1997, when a self-employed bricklayer fell from a scaffold on a house-building scheme in Foxrock, Co Dublin.
