Twenty two deaths on construction sites in 2002 is 22 deaths too many. All of us condemn and are concerned at the level of accidents in the construction sector. Progress, however, has been made in recent years in prevention and awareness measures. A safety, health and welfare at work Bill will be introduced in April of this year. It is complex and extensive and my Department and the Parliamentary Counsel are giving high priority to publishing it as soon as possible.
The construction industry has been notorious in the past for being negligent about safety in the workplace but since the establishment of the Construction Safety Partnership and a range of other initiatives, there is a much better culture of prevention and awareness in the industry. Changes have taken place. There is mandatory safety representation on sites with more than 20 employees and mandatory safety training with registration cards and there are safety officers and defined roles for site safety representatives. These regulations came into effect on 1 January 2002. The FÁS safe pass safety awareness training programme is now training more than 185,000 people in the industry, with 300 tutors in place. The safety representative project has enabled the appointment of safety representatives on all sites.
I accept what the Deputy says and I agree that this is not enough. I have asked the construction industry and ICTU to meet my officials and me to establish why the continuing significant efforts are not yielding better results. I have also asked for new codes of practice to be introduced in certain areas immediately, such as below-ground work, where it is clear building companies and builders are not following the existing codes.
The HSA is vigorously pursuing through the courts any case where employers or building companies are found to be negligent and we will continue to pursue those cases aggressively. Also, there will be greatly increased fines and jail sentences in the new legislation.