Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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298. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 126 of 9 February 2017, the specific actions taken and progress since he indicated that his Department is reviewing its role in respect of the aspects of legislation relating to regulation of fairground equipment and funfairs and specific legislative provisions relating to fairground equipment. [24560/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department commenced an internal review process on the issue of safety at funfairs/ fairground equipment earlier this year.

Section 239 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 places a statutory duty on organisers of funfairs and owners of fairground equipment to take such care as is reasonable for ensuring that persons at a funfair do not suffer injury or damage by reason of dangers arising from the funfair or associated activities.  This legislation also requires that the owner of fairground equipment shall not make it available to the public unless such equipment has a valid certificate of safety. The organiser of a funfair is required to give notice of the event to the relevant local authority and such notice is to be accompanied by a valid certificate of safety.

One of the issues raised was that the planning legislation does not assign responsibility to a specific body to investigate accidents at funfairs; however, it was noted at that time that provisions in criminal justice and safety, health and welfare at work legislation provide a range of responsibilities and roles for investigation of accidents.

My Department’s review of the aspects of legislation relating to regulation of fairground equipment and funfairs in section 239 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, particularly in respect of the specific legislative provisions relating to fairground equipment, is on-going and includes an examination of international practice in the area of regulating public safety.

This preliminary work has facilitated an initial round of meetings with relevant stakeholders in which my Department has met with persons engaged in the current regulatory process as well as with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Health and Safety Authority.  This stage has clarified some issues and the process of drafting the review report has commenced; however, further engagement with relevant stakeholders is envisaged as part of the process of clarifying issues and drafting conclusions and recommendations for the review report.