The Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, is planning on-the-spot fines for building contractors who breach safety regulations. The fines are part of a general increase in penalties to be introduced under legislation he hopes to see enacted early next year.
Mr Kitt was speaking after more than 1,000 building workers marched through Dublin yesterday to protest at recent deaths in the city, including that of Mr Timothy Kelliher (56) last Friday at a docklands site and four-year-old Alec Cuthbert in Ballymun on August 22nd.
Alec's father, Mr Paul Cuthbert, addressed the marchers briefly outside Mr Kitt's office. "I want to thank all you lads for standing up for safety conditions and I just hope someone takes responsibility for killing my son," he said before being overcome with emotion.
Later building workers laid a wreath outside the offices of the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, in memory of the 13 people who died as a result of construction industry accidents.
SIPTU branch secretary Mr Eric Fleming offered sympathy to the families of those who had died. He went on to criticise Ms Harney. "You are a very good Minister for the media and speak on every small factory closure in the country. But we haven't heard one squeak from you about deaths in the building industry."
Two-thirds of builders found guilty of serious breaches of the safety regulations "walk away from court with fines of £500 and £1,000", he said. "If there were as many gardai being killed each year, or teachers or nurses, the Government would build a special prison for the killers."
He accused Mr Kitt of failing to honour promises made 18 months ago to SIPTU. But Mr Kitt said later he had been working with SIPTU, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Construction Industry Federation and the Health and Safety Authority to prepare legislation.
He accepted fines were inadequate and he hoped to publish legislation before the end of the year which would provide for significantly higher penalties. He said 25 extra staff had been recruited by the authority and enforcement was much more rigorous.
All court cases were now referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions to see if they warranted indictable charges, and the number of site closures so far this year was 34 compared with 38 for the whole of 2000, he said. There had been 420 partial closures under prohibition notices, compared with 579 last year.
At the end of the march there were angry exchanges when the chairman of the Building and Allied Trades Union, Mr Gerry Kernak, criticised SIPTU policy and told the marchers they would be better off confronting employers on site over safety issues rather than holding marches. SIPTU branch chairman, Mr Paul Hansard, said few members of other unions had turned out. "At the end of the day the only union here is SIPTU."
The CIF's director of safety, Mr Peter McCabe, said it had agreed to increase fines but more co-operation by unions and local communities was also needed. He accepted that tight completion deadlines for contracts caused accidents, and called for enforcement of EU regulations requiring safety planning to be part of the tendering process.
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