Ireland's Construction Safety Partnership (CSP) has been lauded for reaching the mid point of its three year plan.

Congratulating the CSP, Minster for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary called on the industry to give its continued support to the partnership's work.

The Minister warned against safety and health complacency, while acknowledging the severe impact of the economic downturn on the construction sector.

"In these very difficult times, it is even more important that we do whatever we can to make sure that health and safety does not lose priority in mistaken attempts to achieve savings," he said.

The CSP, established in 1999, is a major driving force behind many of the improvements in site safety.

It is a partnership of employee, employer and state bodies, together with professional associations.

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CSP Chair Kevin Kelly welcomed Minister Calleary's message of support and thanked the existing members for their work.

"The lessons of the past tell us that we must sustain our safety actions in a downturn in our industry.

"The essential infrastructure to do this is in place in the CSP, works well and must be maintained so that we never again see the industry with the safety record that prevailed in the late nineties before the CSP was set up," he said.

While the overall rate of construction activity is down there are still a significant number of people directly employed in construction.

Evidence suggests that there is a large amount of repair, maintenance and improvement work being carried out in the sector.

Martin O’Halloran, Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Authority, is particularly concerned at a recent increase in the number of deaths resulting from falls from height. "So far this year there have been seven workers killed in construction as a result of a fall - many of these were small contractors involved in low-level repair work," he said.

"We’re also still getting a lot of manual handling related injuries reported to us. So while overall safety is significantly improved, there is much work to be done."

The CSP action plan set a number of goals to be achieved over a three year timeframe. This week's forum heard that all partners have delivered on their goals and that the course is now set to achieve the targets described in the plan.

(PR/KMcA)