Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The issue of corporate manslaughter was considered while drafting the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill, which ultimately became the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. The Attorney General was of the opinion that there were much broader issues to be considered than those of safety, health and welfare at work. Legislating in the relatively confined area of occupational safety and health would have omitted other sectors in which corporate manslaughter could be committed. It was therefore decided it was inappropriate to deal with the issue of corporate killing in legislation pertaining to occupational safety, health and welfare and the regulation thereof.

The Law Reform Commission accepted the view of the Office of the Attorney General that the scope of the 2005 Act was appropriately narrower than the scope of the legislation it recommended to deal with the proposed offence. The commission also recommended that there should be individual statutory liability for managers who are culpable in the causation of death. Section 80 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 provides for directors, managers and other similar officers of an undertaking to be prosecuted before the courts for an offence that is attributable to connivance or neglect on their part.

The matter of consideration of the wider implementation of the recommendations in the report of the Law Reform Commission is one for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in the context of his responsibility for the criminal law system.

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