First Aid Training for Dublin Workplaces: What Irish Employers Must Provide

If you run a workplace in Dublin, the first aid rules you follow are the same as everywhere else in Ireland. They come from the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007, and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has published a guide to them. The Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) is the body that recognises first aid training institutions. This guide pulls those two sources together so employers and managers know what they must provide, what a PHECC-recognised course is, and how to check that a certificate is valid. For a general overview of the topic, see our guide to workplace first aid training.

A note on the sources: the HSA guide we reviewed is Chapter 2 of Part 7 of its guide to the 2007 Regulations, dated December 2007, and it states that it is general guidance and not a legal interpretation. It does not mention PHECC or certificate validity periods. The PHECC pages we reviewed do not state how long a responder certificate stays valid either. Check the HSA and PHECC websites for current requirements, and check the certificate and your training provider for any refresher requirement.

What employers must provide

The HSA guide says Chapter 2 applies to every place of work, covering employers and self-employed people. Under regulation 165(1), the employer must:

• Provide and maintain suitably marked, easily accessible first aid equipment that is adequate for the circumstances wherever working conditions require it.
• Designate the number of occupational first aiders needed to give first aid at each place of work.
• Make sure the number of first aiders, their training and their equipment are adequate for the size and hazards of each workplace.
• Include first aid arrangements in the safety statement, including first aiders' names and the location of rooms and equipment, and display local emergency services' names, addresses and telephone numbers clearly at each workplace.

The guide defines first aid as treatment to preserve life or limit injury or illness until a registered doctor or nurse takes over, and treatment of minor injuries that would otherwise go untreated. It excludes giving drugs or medication. An occupational first aider is a person trained and qualified in occupational first aid.

If an occupational first aider is absent in temporary and exceptional circumstances, regulation 165(2) allows the employer to designate another person to take charge of an injured or ill person. The guide says that person, if untrained in basic life-saving, should get medical help quickly and prevent further harm.

How many first aiders do you need?

The HSA guide does not use headcount bands. It says needs depend on the size of the undertaking, the number of people employed, hazards, access to medical services, how dispersed employees are, off-site working and isolated locations. It says offices and libraries generally have lower hazards than factories or construction sites. The numbers should be set by a risk assessment recorded in the safety statement, and the guide says numbers should be doubled where the workplace is more than one hour from medical assistance.

The guide gives a table of broad indicative numbers, but the figures are not reproduced here, so refer to the HSA guide itself.

Kits, rooms, records and defibrillators

The guide says first aid kits should be kept up to date and conveniently located. Where occupational first aiders are present, kits should be under their control. If employees work off site regularly, employers need not provide kits unless there are special hazards or isolation. Where employees work in isolation, or where medical attention is more than one hour's total travel away, a kit should be provided.

A first aid room is required where the risk assessment shows a need, based on factors such as premises size, type of activity, accident frequency, special hazards and distance from medical facilities. The guide also says details of all cases treated by occupational first aiders should go in a first aid treatment record book, kept secure and confidential, which can be shown to an HSA inspector on request.

On automated external defibrillators (AEDs), the guide says provision should be considered where occupational first aiders are present, and training non-first-aiders in AED use is encouraged. For more on this topic, see our guide to defibrillator and AED training.

What PHECC recognition means

PHECC publishes a list of recognised institutions that deliver First Aid Response (FAR) courses. Its FAR page describes a three-day course offering training in first aid, including cardiac first response. PHECC's responder certification page describes FAR as the recognised training course for compliance with health and safety legislation on first aid provision. The page does not name the legislation, so we cannot say more about the link between the course and the Regulations than that.

How to check a certificate

PHECC's certification page says that from 1 March 2025 the only valid certificate for a PHECC-approved responder course is a digital certificate, and that paper certificates issued and dated from 1 March are invalid. Students receive their certificate by email and can add it to a digital wallet or print it. The printed copy has a QR code that links to the live credential page. To verify a certificate, scan the QR code, or check that it is linked to the PHECC certificate URL on the PHECC page. The page states that if the certificate is not linked to that URL, it is not a valid certificate.

Choosing a provider (our suggestions)

The following points are Learnsignal's own suggestions, not HSA or PHECC guidance. Ask the provider to confirm they appear on PHECC's list of recognised institutions. Ask how and when digital certificates will be issued. Check what the course covers against the first aid risks in your risk assessment. Our guide to HSA mandatory training requirements in Ireland covers other training duties.

Frequently asked questions

Do the first aid rules differ in Dublin?

The Regulations apply to every place of work in Ireland. The pages we reviewed do not describe any Dublin-specific rules.

Is a paper certificate still valid?

PHECC says paper certificates issued and dated from 1 March 2025 are invalid for PHECC-approved responder courses.

How often must first aiders retrain?

The HSA guide and PHECC pages we reviewed do not state a validity or refresher period. Check the certificate and with your training provider and the PHECC website.

To build wider workplace safety knowledge, explore our CPD courses. This article is a summary of HSA and PHECC material and is not legal advice.