Address by Tony Killeen TD, Minister for Labour Affairs at the Conference of the Irish Mining and Quarrying Society (IMQS) in Association with the Health and Safety Authority

“The New Quarry Regulations 2006 and Guidance Document”

I am delighted to have the opportunity to address this conference involving the key players in the Irish extractive industry. I know you as a broadly based and representative group and that your attendance here is an indication of your commitment to the development of your industry.

Recent economic indicators point to the continuation of our success for at least a further fifteen years. The prosperity and growth that have marked the closing years of the old century and the opening years of the new one look set to continue.

But just as we have managed our prosperity so too must we arrange our success to ensure a viable future. Just as you in your everyday lives must manage and calibrate sometimes finite resources and chart a course for future success.

Our economy has made enormous progress in recent years and the resulting growth has benefited society well. We want this to continue and in planning our future we have put new infrastructure in place in a number of spheres, not least that of worker safety.

We have a new Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act in place and in due course we will have a number of volumes of new secondary legislation underpinning that Act such as the Construction Regulations and the General Application Regulations.

The 2005 Act is framework in nature; its substance depends on its practical application across the State and in the detail of regulations and guidance tailor-made for industries like your own.

The proposed Quarry Regulations are currently with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government for legal settlement.

The overall objective of these Regulations is to put in place updated, streamlined, simplified and consolidated occupational safety, health and welfare provisions specifically for the quarrying industry.

These new regulations will replace the existing provisions and regulations that relate to quarrying, in both the Mines and Quarries Act, 1965 and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Extractive Industries) Regulations 1997. This should simplify one element of legislation for the sector and will be accompanied by very detailed guidance material.

A similar exercise is underway in relation to mines and when new Mines Regulations are developed, the remaining provisions of the Mines and Quarries Act 1965 and the Regulations under it will be completely replaced.

The draft Regulations and Repeals and Revocation Order were developed in consultation with a Working Group representative of -

• Mineral Engineering Department Athlone Institute of Technology,
• Irish Mining and Quarrying Society (IMQS),
• Construction Industry Federation (CIF),
• IBEC,
• SIPTU,
• Irish Concrete Federation (ICF),
• Institution of Engineers of Ireland (IEI),
• Health and Safety Authority

I want to add my voice to that of the Health and Safety Authority in acknowledging the support and commitment of this group. The proposals were also published for formal public consultation, together with detailed, comprehensive draft guidelines, and were welcomed by the sector.

The regulations are designed to simplify the occupational safety and health provisions applying to the quarrying sector. The legislation is codified and made more accessible to users.

The regulations reflect best practice and the extensive use of risk assessment and no major new requirements are introduced. The Regulations also take account of engineering and technical developments relevant to the quarrying industry that have taken place over the last 4 decades.

Your sector has been an essential element in our current economic success. You have been a key component and central facet of our sustained economic development. If the Construction sector represents the pillars of our success then it is the people in this room who represent its foundations.

But herein lies our challenge……

There are currently about 1,500 registered quarries in the country, of which 450/500 are active. Total employment in the sector is between 10,000 and 12,000 people.

Five fatalities occurred in the quarrying sector in 2005, the last previous fatality having occurred in 2003, however, the sector continues to be the subject of concern and has by far the highest Fatal Accident Rate of the economic sectors.

It is within figures such as these that lie the brutal facts that could unpick all of our accomplishments. Success must not come at a price. I was struck on reading through your conference brochure to read the words of Tom Beegan CEO of the Health and Safety Authority who says that it is in the practical application of these regulations at workplace level that real success will be achieved.

The ongoing success story of our economy, the individual achievements of the firms you represent must be marked by their acceptance of the challenge posed by the 2005 Act and by these regulations and guidance.

While theseconsolidated quarries regulations now contain all the specific requirements for the surface quarrying sector they must be considered along with the requirements of the principal Act, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and other general workplace safety and health legislation such as the forthcoming Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act (General Application) Regulations, 2006 etc.

It must be emphasized that compliance with these statutory requirements is in fact the absolute minimum requirement and to build a culture of safety in the sector involves leadership and commitment from industry leaders which cannot be set out in regulation. We have seen how effective such partnership can be from the Working Group who helped develop these regulations.

Take these regulations, use them, be guided and directed them. But let them only be the base on which you build a safe and successful workplace.

I said earlier on that I considered this industry to be in many ways the foundation for our success. I would ask you to make these guidelines the foundations for a success based on competence, responsibility and safety.

I recommend these guidelines to you, they have been developed using your experience and expert guidance, use them well.

Ends

LA 171