Pat Griffin
Senior Inspector with the Health and Safety Authority
HSA
Pat Griffin, Senior Inspector with the Health and Safety Authority, has worked with the Authority since April 1991. After working in underground mining for over 10 years, Pat joined the HSA in 1991 as a Mines & Quarries Inspector. Following approximately 10 years of Inspection & Accident Investigation type work across all sectors including mining, quarrying, construction, manufacturing and agriculture, Pat was promoted to regional manager for the North East and managed a team of Inspectors in the North East for over 5 years.
With his experience in dealing with health and safety across all sectors Pat then went into a more policy/prevention type role where he spent some time as the HSA policy lead for Machinery Safety, CE Marking, Explosive Atmospheres, ATEX, Manual Handling, MSD’s, Slips/Trips/Falls, the Signs Directive and the Fishing Sector. Over these years Pat gained considerable experience in policy development and EU committee work.
Pat has worked as policy/prevention lead in the Authority for Agriculture, Forestry, Mining, Quarrying and Explosives for the last 16 years and is now H.S.A. lead for Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing for both policy and enforcement activities. Pat has an absolute commitment to worker safety across all sectors and has a particular interest in preventing child & elderly deaths on farms and influencing the national & EU approach to farm safety. Pat has been instrumental in developing much of the information and guidance on farm health & safety, including the Farm Safety Code of Practice, which can be found on the HSA website www.hsa.ie. This material was generally developed in consultation with farmers and the farming sector through the Farm Safety Partnership Advisory Committee.
About the HSA
The H.S.A. is the National Competent Authority for Occupational Safety and Health and has a very broad remit, including;
- Responsibility for ensuring that over 2 million workers (employed and self-employed) and those affected by work activity are protected from work related injury and ill-health,
- The lead National Competent Authority for chemicals, REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) and Seveso II Directive. Our responsibility in this area is to protect human health (general public, consumers and workers) and the environment,
- The key agency involved in market surveillance and ensuring the safety of products and machinery used in workplaces and consumer applications.
About CPD Training
Pat has a core belief in CPD training, practical skills training and continuous development of competence as a means of improving farmer health and safety. A core belief is that improving health and safety on farms must be proactively supported by all stakeholders and given the numbers of child and elderly fatalities must involve all family members. Good safety and health standards must be shown by good example, as poor practice learnt today can result in a tragedy tomorrow. Online CPD training completed by all family members along with good example can minimise the risk of farm fatalities, injury and ill health. Pat strives to get all farmers & workers to approach & improve managing safety at work for the right reasons. With extensive experience on EU Committees and some experience with the ILO, Pat is also involved in research and acted as Science Communication Manager with the SACURIMA COST Action research project on farm safety and is now involved with the current SafeHabitus research project. This research is hoped to develop user friendly policies and strategies to further reduce the levels of death, injury and ill health in Agriculture in Ireland, across Europe and further afield.
