SCAFFOLDING at the Dublin hotel site where a construction worker was injured on Monday was condemned last August. Work was stopped for six days when the High Court granted a prohibition order to the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).
However, no application was made to renew the order, despite concerns voiced by a member of the HSA, Mr Eric Fleming, who is also the secretary of SIPTU's construction industry branch.
The HSA said yesterday that it could not comment on specific cases and a spokesman added that it is announcing a new programme tomorrow to tackle safety problems in the industry.
However he confirmed that a High Court order had been obtained against Arcourt Ltd for serious breaches of statutory regulations on August 31st last.
These breaches included dangerous scaffolding, the use of 220v power (normally 110v power is used to avoid the risk of electrocution), lack of "edge protection" (toebars and handrails), no protection against overhead power lines no welfare facilities and lack of adequate site management.
The prohibition order forced all work to stop while the problems were addressed. Mr Fleming says he returned to the site on the day it reopened and found "numerous violations of the health and safety code. I raised it with the authority and they said it was a big improvement," he said. "They've now had an accident months down the road and this company has still not been prosecuted," he said.
Efforts were made to contact Arcourt Ltd yesterday by calling to the site, telephoning and fax messages, but the company failed to respond.
Mr Fleming says HSA inspectors spend only about 10 per cent of their time investigating sites, and rest is taken up by administrative, educational, advisory and preventive work. He says some developers have "a litany of complaints and fines" against them but still persist in tolerating dangerous site practices.
In the past year one worker has been killed and 10 injured by collapsing scaffolding in the Dublin area alone. Mr Fleming says it is a miracle that no passers by have been injured.
The number of people injured in the construction industry has risen from 1,000 a year in 1992 to 1,800 last year. This is partly due to an increase in the workforce from 7 00 to 86,000. But the rate of accidents per 100,000 has also risen from 1,353 in 1992 to 2,093 in 1996.
"If a judge can be so concerned over mouse droppings in food at Croke Park that he can nail a caterer for £50,000, where is the justice for all the people injured and the 11 people killed in the building industry last year?" Mr Fleming asks. He wants penalties increased and persistent offenders jailed. "In Britain they found prison was the only measure that developers took seriously."
A spokesman for the Health and Safety Authority disputes Mr Fleming's assertion that only 10 per cent of inspectors' time is spent on inspections. He says that this takes over a quarter of their time.
He says a third of all HSA inspections are of building sites, and 90 per cent of prohibition orders are issued against employers in the construction industry.
Last year 4,000 sites, or one in six, were investigated. Prohibition orders were served on 400 sites, or one in 10. Tougher regulations came into force last year when the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, made the overall project designer and contractor liable for safety.
There is considerable pressure on firms to finish work on time, especially in designated areas where there are time limits on the tax relief available. Yet accidents cost money - 8 per cent of building industry costs, according to an HSA finding.
