299 incidents were reported to the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) that occurred in meat processing plants in 2023.
The most common cause of incidents involved the lifting or carrying of items.
While 299 incidents occurred in 2023, 80 occurred in the first four months of 2024.
Taking a look at this 16 month period from January 2023 to April 2024, the highest number of incidents during this period were recorded in Co. Cork, with the lowest number in counties Laois and Waterford.
County Incidents Cork 42 Tipperary 39 Monaghan 35 Cavan 28 Offaly 26 Mayo 24 Roscommon 24 Kildare 20 Kilkenny 20 Wexford 20 Longford 16 Dublin 14 Meath 13 Louth 12 Donegal 11 Westmeath 9 Limerick 7 Galway 5 Leitrim 4 Wicklow 4 Laois 3 Waterford 3
11% of the incidents occurred in Co. Cork, while 10% happened in meat processing plants in Co. Tipperary.
24 incidents happened in Mayo and Roscommon, while Kildare, Kilkenny and Wexford all saw 20 incidents occur at meat processing plants in the counties.
Just seven counties saw fewer than ten incidents occur at meat processing plants during this 16 month period.
Below is a table provided by the HSA of 251 incident triggers from 2023 to April 2024:
Incident trigger Incidents Lifting, carrying 60 Pushing, pulling 55 Fall on same level (slip, stumble etc) 52 Loss of control of hand held tool 24 Breakage of material at joints 17 Loss of control of machine 15 Loss of control of object being worked on 15 Body movement (no physical stress) 13
From this table, it can be seen that lifting and carrying was the trigger of 60 of these incidents, with pushing and pulling being the second highest cause of incidents with a total of 55.
Incident data can be reported to the HSA with a delay; therefore, this data is provisional and subject to change