Vol. 423 No. 2
4 Mr. Ryan asked the Minister for Labour if he will outline the main recommendations in the new European Commission Directive dealing specifically with the use of visual display units; and the way in which he proposes to implement the recommendations.
Council Directive 90/270/EEC of 29 May 1990 on the minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment is due for implementation by member states by 31 December 1992. The National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health is currently developing proposals to give effect to that Directive and I expect receipt of the authority's proposals in the coming months.
The principal provisions of the Directive require employers: (a) to analyse VDU workstations in order to evaluate safety and health conditions which may arise for employees particularly as regards possible risks to eyesight, physical problems and mental stress; (b) to take appropriate measures to remedy any risks so found; (c) to take appropriate steps to ensure that VDU workstations first put into service after 31 December 1992 meet minimum requirements specified in the Annex to the Directive; and (d) to take appropriate measures to ensure that VDU workstations already in use before 31 December 1992 comply with those minimum requirements not later than 31 December 1996.
The minimum requirements arise under three general headings: (i) Equipment (including display screen, keyboard and work desk or work surface); (ii) Environment (including space, lighting, noise and heat); and (iii) Operator and Computer Interface (including software requirements and adaption of display systems to operators).
The Directive also contains provisions relating to the provision of eye and eyesight tests and, where such tests show it necessary, ophthalmological examinations. The provision of special corrective appliances in certain circumstances is also provided for.
The provisions of the Directive will be implemented by Statutory Regulations under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989.
I have still to be convinced that the Minister and the Department are serious about this matter given that the Directive was issued in 1990 and there is still no agreement with only three months to go to the implementation date. Given that eye strain, fatigue, backache and related stress symptoms have been associated with the visual display unit, what guarantee can the Minister give to hundreds of thousands of operators throughout the country that the basic guarantees of this Directive can be implemented and not put on the long finger like many a directive in the past?
The health and safety authority are responsible for drawing up the regulations necessary to implement this Directive. The authority are currently developing proposals for regulations to give effect to that and various other directives on safety and health.
Those proposals are being developed by the authority's tripartite board involving employers, unions and my Department. The authority is also in consultation with a wide range of interests including Government Departments, employer organisations, trade unions, professional bodies and representative organisations. Workers are entitled to appropriate eye and eyesight tests before commencing display screen work and at regular intervals thereafter and if they experience visual difficulties which may be due to display screen work they will also be entitled to an ophthalmological examination if the results of earlier tests show that this is necessary. Where the results of such an examination indicate that normal corrective appliances cannot be used workers must be supplied with special corrective appliances appropriate to the work concerned. The Health and Safety Authority are working on this and a number of other directives and it will be implemented within the timescale set out in the Directive.
The current guidelines go back to 1985 and many employers when confronted by trade unions representing the staff say that they have no knowledge of these guidelines. Can the Minister guarantee that this Directive will be issued to all employers by the Health and Safety Authority to ensure that these requirements are implemented? Finally, can the Minister guarantee that in relation to examinations, tests or spectacles for any of the staff, there will be no cost in future?
There is no cost to workers in relation to this part of the Directive. Second, it will be brought in in time and, third, it will be disseminated in the normal way.
We now come to deal with other questions.
