The Health & Safety Authority

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Supporting Employers to Safeguard Employee Health and Safety

The vision of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) is to ensure healthy, safe, and productive lives and enterprises. In the longer term, they want to realise a safe and healthy working life for people in Ireland and to foster an environment where businesses can grow and prosper. The HSA want to ensure that providers of services and products are accredited thereby enhancing the confidence of their customers and clients.

Free Resources available to manage Health, Safety and Welfare

To promote health and safety and create better awareness of health and safety requirements for Irish businesses, the HSA has developed a range of free online resources that are easy to use:

BeSMART.ie

BeSMART.ie is a free and easy to use resource. To access and use the platform you need to register for a free account. The system only requires an email and password. Creating an account allows you to save and retrieve your work.

BeSMART.ie is broken into a simple 5 step process:

  1. Step 1 – Profile creation
  2. Step 2 – Business selection and hazard profiling
  3. Step 3 – Risk assessment – hazard identification and risk assessment
  4. Step 4 – Consultation and review
  5. Step 5 – Download and manage

Full details on https://www.besmart.ie/

hsalearning.ie

This portal provides free online courses covering a range of work sectors and topics including workplace safety, health and welfare induction, psychosocial risk and work-related stress (WRS), chemicals safety, farm safety and more. Browse the range of available courses by topic and sectors of employment on https://hsalearning.ie/

Work Positive

Work Positive is free to use, easy to administer and completely confidential. The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete and the results can be accessed online. The Work Positive tool/process is based around a four-stage approach:

  • Prepare: Build a business case, secure commitment, and establish your steering group
  • Measure: Identify risk and opportunity within your workplace using the survey tool
  • Action Plan: Explore and prioritise the key actions, develop your action plan
  • Review: Review progress and revitalise your Action Plan

Visit https://www.workpositive.ie/

Consultation and Safety Representatives

Active worker engagement in safety and health reaps dividends for a company and ensures greater protection for all. Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005, employees can put their name forward to be selected by their colleagues to act as their Safety Representative. The Safety Representative provides a direct link between the employer and employees on safety and health matters. For further information go to:

Reporting of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences

All employers and self-employed persons are legally required to report the injury of an employee due to an accident in the workplace here. Injuries must be reported if an employee is unable to carry out their normal work for more than three consecutive days, excluding the day of the accident.

Information Sheets

  • See the new Fire extinguisher safety checks information checks here.
  • Crystalline Silica Dust – Information Sheet here
  • View all information sheets and publications here.

Website & Contact Centre

When you visit https://www.hsa.ie/eng/ and you can find:

  • Articles on relevant topics
  • Collection of HSA publications
  • Clarification and information on relevant legislation
  • Information on specific HSA lead and partnered campaigns

The Contact Centre provides additional support on a myriad of technical, industry specific and general issues. It is the second link in the chain of support mechanisms that the HSA provides and available from 09:00 – 15:00 by phone: 0818 289 389 and by email: [email protected].