Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 December 2021
174. 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 2020 and 30 November 2021; the type of accident and injury involved, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62810/21]
View answerThere is a duty on all employers, the self-employed and other duty holders to report to the Health and Safety Authority any work-related accident causing workers to lose four or more days of work.
The information collected in the accident reports is based on European Statistics on Accidents at Work methodology, this allows comparison of accidents between EU member states. The statistics system relies on a classification system known as NACE which stands for the Nomenclature of Economic Activities. The work practices carried out in a meat processing plant can be categorised under three of the NACE classifications, 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 |
The number of accidents reported to the HSA in meat processing plants (as identified by the three NACE codes above) for the period from 01 December 2020 to 30 November 2021 period is 362.
The number of accidents reported for the period in meat processing plants by county, all of which were non-fatal accidents is set out in the table on Appendix I.
All accidents reported to the HSA include important details such as the trigger i.e. the cause of the accident and details of the triggers involved in the accidents reported are set out in Appendix II.
The Health and Safety Authority’s annual programme of work is based on a risk assessment of sectors, with inspections targeted at sectors with higher levels of workplace fatalities and accidents. The food sector is a highly regulated sector with a high level of compliance with Health and Safety legislation. Thus, in any one year the Health and Safety Authority carries out a lower level of inspections in the food sector compared to the construction or farming sectors where workplace fatalities and accidents are considerable higher.
Appendix 1
|
County |
No. of Accidents |
% of Total |
|
Cavan |
76 |
20.99% |
|
Tipperary |
61 |
16.85% |
|
Cork |
48 |
13.26% |
|
Monaghan |
30 |
8.29% |
|
Wexford |
17 |
4.70% |
|
Offaly |
16 |
4.42% |
|
Kildare |
14 |
3.87% |
|
Longford |
14 |
3.87% |
|
Meath |
12 |
3.31% |
|
Kilkenny |
10 |
2.76% |
|
Laois |
10 |
2.76% |
|
Louth |
8 |
2.21% |
|
Westmeath |
8 |
2.21% |
|
Wicklow |
7 |
1.93% |
|
Waterford |
6 |
1.66% |
|
Carlow |
5 |
1.38% |
|
Donegal |
5 |
1.38% |
|
Dublin |
5 |
1.38% |
|
Mayo |
5 |
1.38% |
|
Galway |
3 |
0.83% |
|
Leitrim |
1 |
0.28% |
|
Limerick |
1 |
0.28% |
|
Total |
362 |
100.00% |
Appendix 2
|
What Triggered |
No. of Accidents |
% of Total |
|
Lifting, carrying |
66 |
18.23% |
|
Other triggers not listed |
59 |
16.30% |
|
Pushing, pulling |
53 |
14.64% |
|
Fall on same level (slip, stumble etc) |
46 |
12.71% |
|
Loss of control of hand held tool |
31 |
8.56% |
|
Twisting, turning |
22 |
6.08% |
|
Loss of control of object being worked on |
19 |
5.25% |
|
Body movement (no physical stress) |
13 |
3.59% |
|
Breakage of material at joints |
11 |
3.04% |
|
Fall from height |
10 |
2.76% |
|
Loss of control of machine |
10 |
2.76% |
|
Loss of control of means of transport or handling equipment |
8 |
2.21% |
|
Loss of control of animal |
6 |
1.66% |
|
Overflow, leakage, emission of gas |
4 |
1.10% |
|
Overflow, leakage, emission of liquid |
3 |
0.83% |
|
Person in inappropriate area |
1 |
0.28% |
|
Total |
362 |
100.00% |
