Address by Noel Treacy TD, Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce, at the Conference and Workshop of the Workplace Safety Group On 28 June 2000, 9.00am in the Green Isle Hotel, Clondalkin

It is a great pleasure for me to open this Conference and Workshop here this morning. Delegates can look forward to a very interesting Conference, with a very impressive list of speakers and a very practical approach to making workplace safety a reality.

The headlines that social partnership attracts may dwell on economic issues such as economic conditions and pay. Certainly, we have all been very aware of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness in recent weeks. However, among the unsung, but very real, benefits of social partnership is the capacity to improve workplace safety.

The promotion of workplace safety was an objective for Partnership 2000 and remains on the agenda of the present programme. The social partners have actively promoted workplace safety for a number of reasons. The most important of these, of course, is to reduce the number of workplace accidents because of the human costs involved in such accidents. Other benefits include better industrial relations in individual workplaces and lower insurance costs.

The Programme for Prosperity and Fairness acknowledges the joint IBEC/ICTU Workplace Safety Group as a means to promote the development of a positive attitude and awareness of a health and safety environment at work. The importance of the development of this Group’s potential is underlined. Together with the other work safety initiatives - for instance those taken for the construction sector - this initiative can reap benefits both for employers and employees alike.

I understand that the Voluntary Code of Practice on Safe Working and Accident Prevention in the Workplace has attracted a considerable response and that many organisations have adopted the new Code of Practice with success. Further work needs to be done. In particular, the message needs to go out to small and medium sized firms that adoption of the Code is as important and beneficial to them as to bigger firms. Indeed, the purpose of this seminar is to re-affirm that message.

The reason that I have been asked to open this seminar here today is because of my responsibilities in relation to insurance costs. As I have already said, the most important benefit of the Code is to reduce injury in the workplace. By making workplaces safer, it is also possible to reduce insurance costs.

The 1996 Deloitte and Touche Report found that Ireland had the most expensive employer liability premiums in the entire EU and that these costs could represent as much as 8% of payroll for firms with employees of 10 people or less. To reduce unnecessary costs burdens on employment, it is imperative that such firms are informed of the potential of the Workplace Safety Initiative and are encouraged to adopt it. I am confident that they will find that there are many benefits flowing from the attitudes which it fosters. These benefits are by no means confined to insurance costs, but extend to closer cooperation and partnership in the workplace.

You will be aware that the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness also commits us to put in place various measures to address the complex issues which surround personal injury claims. In particular we are to consider establishing a compensation body as an optional alternative to the present system, which relies heavily on out of Court settlements. A special working group examining this matter has recently submitted its final report to me. We are currently preparing to put recommendations to Government shortly on the basis of this report. While I cannot go into the detail, I would like to take this opportunity to affirm that anything which might emerge from this process will not threaten the interests of the individual who has sustained an injury. Our aim is to deliver speedier compensation in an environment which is not intimidating, in respect of claims where liability is not a serious issue. The benefit would be that the cost of delivering compensation, which can be of the order of 40% of the total cost of settlement, would be reduced. It is not intended to interfere with the individual’s ultimate right to sue in Court, if he or she wishes to. Nor is there any question of compensation being reduced. While we know that personal injury compensation tends to be higher in Ireland than in other countries, this reflects a different value system. Our society, rightly in my opinion, puts a high value on loss of quality of life sustained as a result of personal injury and compensates accordingly. I hope to publish the Report of the Special Working Group when the Government has had a chance to look at this and I look forward to the ensuing debate.

Finally, I would like to remind you all again that the best remedy is to reduce the number of personal injury claims by reducing the number of workplace accidents, not least because this minimises the unacceptable human costs of such accidents. I sincerely commend the social partners and the members of the Workplace Safety Group for organising this Conference and Workshop. I thank them for inviting me to open it and I wish you all an enjoyable and beneficial day.