Businesses with poor health and safety records, such as some building firms and farmers, may be refused insurance cover under new proposals outlined by the Tánaiste to an Oireachtas committee yesterday.
The Health and Safety Authority is in discussion with the insurance industry over a safety code which it hopes will deliver cheaper premiums to firms who sign up to it.
Ms Harney said the measure was aimed at rewarding companies with a good safety record who should not be forced to "pay for the sins of others".
The construction industry last night said the proposals were misguided and called on the Tánaiste to target aspects of the insurance market which required real reform, such as lack of competition and high legal costs.
Under the proposals, companies would be obliged to sign up to a risk assessment or safety code which, depending on how prepared a company is, would lead to cheaper employers' and public liability insurance.
The director general of the Health and Safety Authority, Mr Tom Beegan, said the code would benefit employers and insurance companies by introducing a further incentive for good safety management. "The net is now tightening on people who place scant regard on people's lives and don't take these issues seriously," he told The Irish Times.
"We want to go up the supply chain so that there is good health and safety management in the workplace before any work starts. Over 50 per cent of companies with fatalities die as a result of a lapse in safety management."
The Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) confirmed that talks were underway on a new safety code but did not give any guarantee that there would be a reduction in insurance premiums.
While it supported the concept of a code, a spokesman said it could not pass on any benefits in the current economic conditions which recently saw the industry lose €75 million in the area of employers' and public liability insurance in one year. "The principle of passing on savings when savings are to be had in any insurance sector is not in dispute. But you can't pass on savings which you don't have," said IIF spokesman, Mr Martin Long.
Businesses with poor safety records and the highest rate of claims are based mostly in the construction, agriculture and marine sector, according to official figures.
The Construction Industry Federation aid builders had invested large amounts of money in safety issues.
"Construction firms go to great pains to protect their employees. Is the Tánaiste saying she would be happy if some of these businesses operated without insurance? Every company has an obligation to protect their employees," a CIF spokesman said.
"Last week she was blaming the public for price increases, now she's blaming businesses for price increases. We believe she should be dealing with the nub of the problem, such as lack of competition and legal costs."
He said the industry had invested €250 million in safety procedures in recent years and that Ireland was one of the few countries where every worker is forced to undergo mandatory health and safety training.
Ms Harney told a Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business the insurance market was "dysfunctional" but that a range of reforms would substantially cut the cost of insurance.
