Seán Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)
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Question 191: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when the draft regulation drawn up by the Health and Safety Authority more than 15 months ago to improve safety standards on building sites will be implemented; the reason for the long delay in bringing same into operation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25436/05]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to say that the Health and Safety Authority, on 19 September 2005, published proposals for draft new Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations, for public consultation in accordance with the new provisions of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, which I brought into operation on 1 September last.

The deadline for receipt of submissions by the authority is 18 October 2005 and I look forward to receiving the authority's final proposals as soon as possible thereafter to facilitate the formal legal settlement of the regulations and their implementation at workplace level.

The proposed draft Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2005 follow from a review by the Health and Safety Authority of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2001. The current proposals also take into account the outcome of extensive consultations with the HSA advisory committee on construction safety, the social partners and other interested bodies.

The proposed new regulations are designed to enhance the legislative provisions in the construction sector and to facilitate the implementation of the requirements of the Temporary and Mobile Sites EU Directive, particularly as regards issues concerning design and management and general duties of various parties.

The proposed changes compared with the Construction Regulations 2001 fall within three main categories: the addition of requirements to make existing obligations more explicit and tangible; the reallocation of duties between duty holders to ensure clarity and achieve more effective and timely intervention by key persons, and the removal generally of provisions relating to work at height and to lifting operations, which it is intended to cover in the proposed new Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations and in proposed new Lifting Operations Regulations, respectively.

The coming into operation of the 2005 Act, the new construction regulations and new general application regulations within a relatively short period of each other will provide a modern framework to assist in ensuring that appropriate occupational safety and health standards are attained and maintained in the construction sector.