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A Cork farmer has been fined €10,000 for breaching the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 in a fatal incident on his farm in 2017.
The case was heard at Cork Circuit Court on Tuesday, where Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a fine of €10,000 on the farmer following a guilty plea to a breach of the safety legislation.
The case arose following an incident on the farm in Coachford, which took place on 28 September 2017.
Denis Cullinane was fatally injured when a trench, in which he was laying pipes as part of drainage works, collapsed and engulfed him.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) concluded that all appropriate safety measures were not in place at the time of the incident.
A person operating the excavator at the time of the incident pleaded guilty to S12 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and was fined €1,000.
It is important to ensure that contractors can manage and conduct all their work activities in a safe manner
The fine was imposed for failure to ensure that persons, not being employees, at a place of work were not exposed to risks to their safety and health.
Mark Cullen, chief inspector with the HSA, said: “It is important to ensure that contractors can manage and conduct all their work activities in a safe manner.
“In particular, as can be seen by this tragic case, it is important that safe systems of work are in place to ensure that persons carrying out the work can do so in a safe manner.”
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