Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is helpful to put on the record the extent of the work of the HSA. Last year it carried out more than 11,000 workplace inspections in all sectors of the economy. More than 8,800 proactive inspections were completed under general occupational safety and health legislation. There were well over 1,100 proactive inspections under the Chemicals Act and the transport of dangerous goods by roads regulation. Almost 600 reactive inspections were completed. There is a lot going on out there but it is true that as we have more businesses and more people are in employment, we need to make sure the regulatory resources keep pace in terms of increasing constantly the number of inspections and the response time to complaints when they come in.