The number of days lost to work-related injury and illness has been increasing steadily since 2003 according to figures released by the Irish Health and Safety Authority on Tuesday 24th June.  And it is now clear that illness, rather than injury, causes more days’ absence from work. The figures were presented at the launch of the 2007 Annual Report and Summary of Workplace Injury, Illness and Fatality Statistics 2006/07 published by the Health and Safety Authority each year.

Minister for Labour Affairs, Billy Kelleher T.D., who launched both reports, stated, “It’s vital that health and safety is at the top of the agenda in all workplaces.  It has clearly been shown that investments in worker health and safety will save money in the long term.  Not only is there a legal and ethical duty to protect workers, the financial case is also strong.”

Speaking at the launch, Martin O’Halloran, Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Authority stated, “We have set ourselves ambitious targets in our Strategy Statement and in our yearly Programme of Work.  These reports published today show that we are moving in the right direction but there is still a huge amount of work to be done to see a further reduction of accidents in all sectors.  We firmly believe that accidents at work are preventable in the majority of cases.”

Jim Lyons, Chairman of the Health and Safety Authority, added, “There have been significant improvements in some industry sectors but nobody can become complacent.  With 67 lives lost in workplace accidents last year and 31 worker deaths so far this year there is still much work to be done.”

Some key highlights from the reports include:

-  The number of work-related deaths in 2007 was 67.  This compares to 51 in 2006 and 74 in 2005.
-  The agriculture sector had the highest fatality rate at 8.3 fatalities per 100,000 workers.
-  Of the injuries reported to the Authority in 2007, approximately 14% involved non-Irish national workers.
-  A total of 13,631 workplace inspections were carried in 2007 and enforcement action was necessary in 12% of those workplaces.

Manual handling continues to trigger approximately one-third of all reported incidents with ‘slip, trip and fall’ incidents the next most common.Together they accounted for over 50% of all reported accidents in 2007.

The most recent data available shows that Ireland has the second lowest non-fatal injury rate in the EU15 but a higher than average fatality rate.

Commenting on emerging trends, Martin O’Halloran added, “Our statistics report clearly shows an increase in levels of occupational illness over the last number of years.  This is an area which we will be targeting further and it’s important that employers and employees don’t focus solely on occupational injuries.  Illness as a result of work activity is just as serious as having a physical injury.”