Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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287. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if her attention has been drawn to the severe restrictions imposed on community and voluntary groups and community work placement initiatives by the need to comply with the Safety, Health and Welfare Act 2005; if she will make it mandatory that all persons employed under these schemes will receive proper training, proper clothing and work materials under the Act to allow them carry out the full range of tasks associated with the job; if her attention has been further drawn to the fact that participants in these schemes are prevented from reaching their full potential and training experience due to restrictions being put in place under the Safety, Health and Welfare Act 2005; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7723/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (No. 10 of 2005) provides for the securing of the safety, health and welfare of persons at work. Specifically that Act places a duty on employers to ensure as far as reasonably practicable, the safety, health and welfare of their employees. This duty includes the assessment of the risks at that place of work and the implementation of the necessary controls to minimise these risks so that the safety and health of the employees is ensured. The duties also include, amongst other things, the provision of information, instruction, training and supervision necessary to ensure as far as reasonably practicable the safety, health and welfare at work of his or her employees. There is a further requirement for the employer to have regard to the general principles of prevention, including the provision of appropriate personal protective equipment where risks cannot be avoided, eliminated at source or controlled through collective protective measures.

Section 2 (5) of the 2005 Act, states that for the purposes of the relevant statutory provisions, a person who is training for employment or receiving work experience, other than when present at a course of study in a university, school or college, shall be deemed to be an employee of the person whose undertaking (whether carried on by him or her for profit or not) is for the time being the immediate provider to that person of training or work experience, and “employee”, “employer” and cognate words and expressions shall be read accordingly. The 2005 Act does not place any restrictions on those who are training at work but requires as indicated in section 2(5) that they there must be regarded as employees and therefore the relevant duties of an employer apply.

The provisions of the Act apply to all places of work and there are no plans to reduce this coverage