Mr. Martin O'Halloran:

We had a query from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in the context of all Departments being consulted on the corporate manslaughter. As Mr. Horgan said, at that stage, it was considered by the board but no definitive position was concluded. To put it into context, while we do not have the offence of corporate manslaughter, the courts treat breaches of health and safety very seriously and even in the past year, have handed down fines of €1 million, €500,000 and €350,000 and custodial sentences with the latest one about three weeks' ago being a two-year custodial sentence suspended. The courts treat the breaches very seriously.

Section 80 of the 2005 Act provides that charges may be preferred against an individual in respect of his or her failures. That has been a very significant provision and has led to significant cases being brought forward in the courts. On the question about the construction sector, the authority commissioned a research study carried out by the employment organisation. It specifically assessed if the attitudes, behaviours and the outcomes for non-Irish workers were different from those relating to Irish workers. The study looked at 200 construction companies and 600 people, 300 of whom were non-Irish nationals. There were no stark differences. Some of the notable findings were that the perception among non-Irish national workers interviewed was that the awareness and sense of responsibility demonstrated by employers in Ireland was at least equivalent to or better than in their home country. This was not a homogenous finding because experiences differed, depending on the country of origin of the workers. In general, the level of awareness of occupational safety and health in Ireland, based on a study carried out by the European agency in Bilbao, ranks us as varying between first and second, depending on the country. That study has informed our construction sector policy. We will carry out 2,500 planned inspections in 2014. We are finding that one of the biggest issues is working at heights, very often on small construction sites. When inspectors visit workplaces they will always be cognisant of the duty of the employer to ensure that staff are briefed and communicated with and this must be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the legislation, which means, in a language accessible to them, which could mean in their own language. We translated many of our leading information documents into the main foreign languages spoken, including Polish, Mandarin and others. When an inspector visits a site, he or she will invariably seek to speak with the safety representative. We are very attuned to the particular and specific needs of workers.