Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 December 2020
158. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of workplace accidents that occurred in meat processing plants in each county between 1 December 2019 and 30 November 2020; the type of accident and injury involved in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41062/20]
View answerThe Health and Safety Authority record statistics based on the NACE code allocated to specific areas within economic sectors - there is no specific NACE sector code for Meat Processing Plants.
The information provided below contains the number of Fatal and Non-Fatal accidents that were notified to the Health and Safety Authority between 1 December 2019 and 30 November 2020 in businesses within NACE codes 1011, 1012 and 1013.
These have a NACE description as follows:
|
NACE Code |
NACE Description |
|
1011 |
Processing and preserving of meat |
|
1012 |
Processing and preserving of poultry meat |
|
1013 |
Production of meat and poultry meat products |
As part of the Health and Safety Authority's statutory function, they investigate all fatalities that are related to work activity.
These investigations enable the HSA to:
- fully understand what happened and why;
- learn from and prevent similar accidents from happening in the future;
- determine whether any organisation or individual has failed in their duties; and
- determine whether any action should be taken, including enforcement or legal action including prosecution.
All accidents notifications received by the Health and Safety Authority are recorded electronically and are prioritised in the following manner.
- Accident reports will receive a High, Medium or Low priority depending on the severity of the injury arising from the accident.
- All fatal accidents are categorised as high and an investigation will be initiated by the Authority in all such cases.
- Accidents which receive a medium priority may be assigned for investigation or follow-up inspection depending on the detail contained on the accident notification form.
In the period between the 1 December 2019 and the 30 November 2020, the HSA received over 7,200 accident notifications across all sectors and all counties.
The number of accidents reported in meat processing plants (as identified by the three NACE codes above) by county is provided in Table 1. The total number of accidents in meat processing plants reported to the Health and Safety Authority is 176 which includes one fatal accident (see Table 2 below). By way of further information, there were 234 reported in 2018 and 225 reported in 2019.
Table 1: Number of accidents in meat processing plants by County, 1 December 2019 to 30 November 2020.
|
County |
Number of Accidents |
% of Total |
|
Cavan |
48 |
26% |
|
Mayo |
17 |
10% |
|
Kilkenny |
16 |
9% |
|
Cork |
13 |
7% |
|
Laois |
10 |
6% |
|
Meath |
9 |
5% |
|
Westmeath |
8 |
5% |
|
Longford |
7 |
4% |
|
Waterford |
7 |
4% |
|
Wexford |
7 |
4% |
|
Donegal |
6 |
3% |
|
Limerick |
6 |
3% |
|
Kildare |
5 |
3% |
|
Offaly |
5 |
3% |
|
Monaghan |
3 |
2% |
|
Tipperary |
3 |
2% |
|
Wicklow |
3 |
2% |
|
Carlow |
2 |
1% |
|
Galway |
2 |
1% |
|
Louth |
1 |
1% |
|
Total |
176 |
100% |
Table 2: Number of accidents in meat processing plants by type of injury, 1st December 2019 to 30th November 2020.
|
Type of Injury |
Number of accidents |
% of total |
|
Sprains and Strains |
72 |
41% |
|
Superficial Injuries |
39 |
22% |
|
Open wounds |
32 |
18% |
|
Closed fractures |
17 |
10% |
|
Injury type unknown |
8 |
5% |
|
Amputation |
3 |
2% |
|
Concussion and internal injuries |
2 |
1% |
|
Dislocations |
2 |
1% |
|
Multiple Injuries |
1 |
1% |
|
Total |
176 |
100% |
