Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his plans to seek to enforce and promote health and safety law relating to portable appliance testing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38875/12]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations employers are responsible for ensuring the safety of equipment used at their place of work or by their employees while at work.

As part of that responsibility employers must ensure that portable equipment which is exposed to conditions likely to cause deterioration and consequent danger, and is supplied at a voltage in excess of 125 volts AC, undergoes a visual check by the user and is periodically inspected by a person competent to establish the on-going safety of the electrical equipment. The nature and frequency of these inspections will vary dependent on the use and location of the equipment.

Employers are further required to ensure that employees have been instructed in the carrying out of visual checks for any signs of damage.

Where equipment is located in environments that are safe from accidental damage or environmental degradation and are rarely moved there should not be a need to have the equipment tested unless a risk assessment shows otherwise. In circumstances where deterioration is anticipated, and where this deterioration might cause danger, the employer should establish a scheme of periodic inspection by a competent person.

In addition to these periodic inspections, the portable equipment and associated leads and plug tops must be tested and certified as being safe by a person competent to carry out such tests. If the certificate issued indicates that the equipment is not safe, then the equipment must not be used until it has been made safe and has been certified as such.

The Health and Safety Authority is the national statutory body with responsibility for enforcing and promoting occupational safety and health law. In line with the approach to risk based inspection the issues that are addressed at any place of work will be evidence led. The Authority has identified the presence of correctly functioning residual current devices as key to minimising risk and preventing shock or electrocution, which is also a collective protective measure. The inspection of places of work may assess the controls relating to electricity based on documented risk assessment, visual examination and the presence and maintenance of key controls such as residual current devices. Where the evidence of inspection warrants it then the issue of electrical safety will be addressed in more detail.

I am satisfied, taking account of indications from the Authority’s inspection experience and incident history that the approach to enforcement is appropriate.