Manager Health and Safety Responsibilities in Ireland: Duties Under the 2005 Act

If you manage people in Ireland, you may wonder where you personally stand under health and safety law. The short answer is that the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 puts its main duties on the employer, and in most organisations managers are the people who carry those duties out day to day. The Act also speaks directly to individuals in a few places, including a provision on directors and managers. This guide walks through what the Act says about manager health safety responsibilities in Ireland, based on the statute text and official plain-English pages. For the employer-side paperwork, see our guide to safety statements and risk assessments under the 2005 Act.

Who is the "employer" under the 2005 Act?

The Act's definitions (section 2) describe the employer as the person the employee has contracted with or works for. They also cover a person who is not the contracting employer but who directs and controls the employee's work, and, where appropriate, a successor or associated employer. In a company, the contracting party is the company itself. Our reading is that managers act for the employer when they allocate work, supervise, sign off equipment or run a team, but the Act's general duties are written as duties of "the employer".

That is why the Act matters to managers even though the headline duties are not addressed to them by job title. If your role involves organising work, you are often the person who makes the employer's duty real or leaves it undone.

The employer duties managers usually carry out

Section 8 sets the general duty: employers must protect the safety, health and welfare at work of their employees, so far as is reasonably practicable. The Act lists what this includes. In plain terms, the list covers:

• managing and conducting work so employees are protected, and so that improper conduct or behaviour that could endanger them is prevented;
• a workplace, access and exit routes, plant and machinery that are safe and without risk to health;
• safe work systems that are planned, organised, maintained and revised as needed;
• welfare facilities and arrangements;
• the information, instruction, training and supervision needed to protect employees;
• identifying hazards, carrying out risk assessments and preparing a safety statement, then putting the resulting measures in place;
• protective clothing and equipment where risks cannot be eliminated or adequately controlled;
• emergency plans and procedures, and reporting accidents and dangerous occurrences as prescribed;
• obtaining the services of a competent person where necessary.

Section 8 also says that these measures must not cost employees anything, and that duties owed to employees extend to fixed-term and temporary employees.

Other sections build on this. Section 9 deals with information for employees, which must be understandable in form, manner and language. Section 11 requires emergency planning, including first aid, firefighting and evacuation, and designated employees to carry those plans out. Section 12 extends the employer's duty to people at the workplace who are not employees, so far as is reasonably practicable. Section 18 requires the employer to appoint one or more competent people for protective and preventive functions, and section 19 requires hazards to be identified and risks assessed in writing. Each of these usually lands on a manager's desk in practice.

Where the Act names individuals and managers

The Act does not, in the general-duties sections we read, set out a separate chapter of "manager duties". Instead, individuals appear in several ways.

• Section 80 (liability of directors and officers of undertakings). Where an organisation commits an offence under the relevant safety laws, a director, manager or other similar officer (or someone who purports to act in that capacity) can also be liable if the offence was authorised or consented to by them, or is attributable to their connivance or neglect. The section also contains a presumption about involvement for certain people unless they prove otherwise. We have not reproduced the penalties, because we did not read them on an official page; check the current text.
• Section 13 (duties of employee). Managers are usually employees too, so the employee duties apply to them: reasonable care for themselves and others, cooperating with the employer, attending required training, and reporting, as soon as practicable, work that may endanger safety, defects and breaches of the relevant statutory provisions of which they are aware.
• Section 20 (safety statement). The statement must specify the names and, where applicable, the job titles of those responsible for assigned tasks. Citizens Information says the same thing in plain language: the safety statement should name the people responsible for safety issues.
• Section 15 (persons in control of places of work). Anyone with some degree of control over a non-domestic workplace made available to non-employees, its access or exit routes, or the articles and substances provided for use there, must ensure so far as reasonably practicable that these are safe. A facilities or premises manager should check whether this applies to their role.
• Section 14 (interference, misuse). No person may intentionally, recklessly or without reasonable cause interfere with or misuse safety provisions or place others at risk at work.

The Health and Safety Authority's 2005 short guide to the Act also says that managers, directors and senior officers may be personally liable if an offence by their organisation is attributable to their neglect, connivance, consent or authorisation. That guide was published in August 2005, so treat it as background and rely on the current statute.

Training, supervision and consultation

Section 10 makes instruction, training and supervision an employer duty. The training must be understandable, take account of each employee's capabilities, be adapted to new or changed risks and, as appropriate, be repeated periodically. It is required, among other occasions, on recruitment, on a change of task and when new equipment or technology is introduced. Citizens Information also notes that employees must be given paid time off for safety awareness training. For a wider view of which training is expected, see our overview of HSA mandatory training requirements in Ireland.

Section 26 requires employers to consult employees on safety matters, in advance and in good time, on topics that include risk assessment, the safety statement, training plans and the introduction of new technology. Employers must consider employees' representations and, where reasonably practicable, act on them. If you manage a team, you are often where that conversation happens. Our guide to safety representatives and consultation explains the structure.

A practical approach for managers

The following points are our own suggestions, not legal requirements:

• Read the part of your organisation's safety statement and risk assessments that covers your team, and confirm that your name or job title is attached to the tasks you are expected to own.
• Keep a simple record of instructions, inductions and training given to your team, and of who attended. Written records make it easier to show what was done.
• Agree a clear route for staff to report faults and unsafe work to you, and agree what you will escalate and to whom.
• If your Dublin team works across several sites or shares a building with other employers, ask who controls shared areas and emergency arrangements.
• When work changes, such as new equipment, a new process or a new starter, treat it as a prompt to check whether the risk assessment and training still fit.

What the sources do not tell us

The Citizens Information page on health and safety at work (last edited on 25 August 2022) has no dedicated section on managers. We have relied on the Irish Statute Book text and the Health and Safety Authority's 2005 guide. The statute pages we opened do not show a "last updated" date, and the Act may have been amended since 2005 and is supported by regulations, so check the revised text and the Authority's current guidance before relying on any detail here. This article is general information, not legal advice.

Learnsignal's offices are off Baggot Street in Dublin, and we offer in-person training from there. For current details, see our CPD pages.

Frequently asked questions

Is a manager the "employer" under the 2005 Act?

Not by job title. The Act's definition of employer refers to the person the employee contracted with, a person who directs and controls the employee's work, or a successor or associated employer. In practice, managers act for the employer, and the Act separately provides for the liability of directors and officers in section 80.

Can a manager be prosecuted personally?

Section 80 provides that a director, manager or other similar officer can be liable where the organisation's offence was authorised or consented to by them, or is attributable to their connivance or neglect. We did not read the penalties on an official page, so check the current text.

Do managers have the same duties as other employees?

Yes. Section 13 applies to all employees while at work, including taking reasonable care for themselves and others, cooperating with the employer, attending required training and reporting dangers, defects and breaches as soon as practicable.

Does the Act say who must be named in the safety statement?

Section 20 says the statement must specify the names and, where applicable, job titles of those responsible for tasks assigned under it. It does not say how senior those people must be.

In short, the 2005 Act places the main duties on the employer, expects managers to carry them out in practice, and gives individual managers their own exposure through the employee duties and section 80.