Written answers
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Employment Rights
9:00 pm
Chris Andrews (Dublin South East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 124: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if the banks are meeting their statutory obligation under section 19 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 by carrying out a hazard identification and a risk assessment in relation to their place of work and identifying the employees at risk due to the reasonable foreseeable risk of tiger kidnapping; and if so, if they completed training with those employees to ensure their safety, health and welfare in accordance with section 10 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the general principles of prevention contained in Schedule 3 of the Act. [42288/09]
Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I am not responsible for the day-to-day supervision of the operations of banks or any other industry sector. The obligations to identify workplace hazards, assess risk, put in place safeguards, including appropriate training, rest on employers. If employees have real concerns that such obligations are not being discharged, they should raise them with their employers in the first instance, via their safety representative where one exists. If their concerns are still not satisfied, they can contact the Health and Safety Authority on 1890 289 389 or email wcu@hsa.ie. However, in the specific case raised by the Deputy, the risk is highly distinct being of a security /law and order nature and it arises, almost by definition, outside the normal workplace. The HSA would have limited, if any, competence in the specific mitigation of such risks which would seem to require specialist security and law enforcement input.
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