Almost half of building sites not compliant

ALMOST 50% of construction site inspections during Level 5 have not been fully compliant.

The Health and Safety Authority has undertaken 27 on- site inspections of which only 14 addressed Covid- 19 measures, according to Tanaiste Leo Varadkar.

And 43% of the sites were told they needed to improve on virus safety measures.

People Before Profit TD Brid Smith, who received the figures after a parliamentary question, said they were “alarming”.

She added: “I am surprised there are such high levels of problems in terms of the health and safety of workers.”

The Dublin South Central TD went on to hit out at the HSA.

She said: “I don’t think it’s fit for purpose or properly resourced to deal with all of the issues that we have, whether it’s meat plants, factories or building sites.

“We need to keep a close eye on it and properly fund the HSA which does not currently have enough inspectors to carry out the work.”