Mr. Conor O'Brien:

I will start on the area of the new world of work and Dr. Duff will deal specifically with the issue of sensitive content.

The world of work is changing rapidly, even as we sit here. If I take artificial intelligence, for instance, there are massive changes under way. We all know that. Regardless of whether it is artificial intelligence or traditional technology, the responsibilities are still there. The Act still covers it. There needs to be a safe system of work and a risk assessment taken where artificial intelligence or any new facilities are used. I have seen, when I have been out on company inspections, an increase in the use of it. For example, robots were being trained to move large pieces of equipment from one part to another in a whiskey maturation plant. This is all very new and employers need to be really careful of this when they are considering the risks involved in it. We are also seeing it through our own work. For instance, out at construction sites, new technologies can start to be seen such as a worker holding up a camera to scan an area and the technology will automatically identify potential hazards and start to build a risk assessment in the background. It can be of huge benefit from a health and safety perspective but there are huge risks on the other side of it from a worker perspective.

There are other new areas of work that we are seeing. Solar panels were mentioned but there are also things like wind farms. A total of 40% of the country's electricity was generated through wind farms in March. There is a massive growth in that. Everything to do with wind farms is covered under our 2005 legislation and the 2013 construction regulations. Whether it is in the construction of the wind farm or the operation of the wind farm, all of those risks still need to be accounted for. In wind farms, given the size of the equipment being used and the working at heights involved, which is one of our key fatalities, the more that increases, the more the risk increases as well. Our work is changing and we have talked a lot about the psychosocial side of things and new technology. Our whole world is expanding, not just changing. We still need to account for all the traditional risks and hazards but we also need to account for these as well.