Written safety statement
Section 20 of the 2005 Act requires every employer to hold a written safety statement, specific to your workplace and kept current.
Compliance you can stand over
Health & safety consultants who do the heavy lifting
Every Irish employer carries the same core safety duties whether the team is five people or fifty, and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 does not scale its requirements to your size. PurpleTree's Longford-based health and safety consultants build the safety statement, risk assessments, training and audits your business needs, integrated with your wider HR support so compliance becomes something you hold confidently rather than worry about.
Understand what the law expects of you.
Your Duties Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005
Irish health and safety law sets the same baseline for every employer, regardless of size or sector. You must identify the hazards in your workplace, assess the risks, record a written safety statement, provide the training each role needs, and appoint a competent person to oversee it where that expertise is not on your own payroll.
The Health and Safety Authority enforces all of this and can inspect any workplace, often without notice. Our guide to health and safety obligations for Irish employers walks through what each duty means in practice and what happens when one of them is missed.
Risk assessment
Hazards identified and risks assessed and recorded, with controls that actually reduce the danger rather than just naming it.
Competent person
Section 18 requires a competent person to oversee safety. We act in that role for employers without in-house expertise.
Safety that fits how you really work.
Policies Your Team Will Actually Follow
We create workplace health and safety policies that meet your legal requirements under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and HSA guidelines, while keeping the culture of your business in mind. Whether you operate in construction, manufacturing or professional services, the result is policies that are compliant, accessible and easy for your team to follow. We turn them into practical health and safety documentation your managers can actually use, and should an incident occur, we provide impartial investigation support to identify root causes and prevent recurrence.
Compliant
Meet Irish health and safety legislation.
Accessible
Give employees clear, easy-to-follow guidance.
Practical
Policies that work on the floor, not just on paper.
Spot the gaps before they become incidents.
Health & Safety Audits
Staying on top of health and safety compliance isn't just a legal obligation, it's how you protect your people, your business, and your reputation. Our expert Safety Audits give you a clear, honest picture of where your organisation stands, identifying gaps before they become incidents, fines, or worse.
We review your safety statement, risk assessments, training and maintenance records, incident logs, and previous inspection reports, then follow this with a thorough site walkthrough and direct consultation with your employees to get a real feel for the health and safety culture on the ground. You'll receive a plain-English report outlining our findings, recommended corrective actions, and any areas of immediate concern, giving you a clear roadmap to full compliance and a safer workplace. Our standalone health and safety audit service sets out every corrective action in priority order so you know what to fix first.
- Comprehensive review of your safety statement, risk assessments, and key records
- Site walkthrough and employee consultation for an accurate, on-the-ground assessment
- Clear, actionable report with findings, corrective actions, and priority concerns highlighted
- Identify compliance gaps before they result in incidents, penalties, or regulatory intervention
- Build a stronger health and safety culture that protects your people and your business
Designing out hazards before they cause harm.
Risk Mitigation & Compliance Support
Our health and safety consultants work with you to design and implement measures that minimise hazards and prevent incidents. With a proactive approach aligned to HSA enforcement standards, you will avoid improvement and prohibition notices, reduce legal exposure, and build a culture where safety is prioritised. We also help manage contractor safety, including pre-qualification checks, site-specific inductions, and ongoing performance monitoring, which matters most in higher-risk sectors such as construction and manufacturing where several parties share a single site and the duties between them have to be clear.
- Prevent accidents before they happen.
- Minimise legal and financial risks.
- Build a workplace culture where safety comes first.
Give your people the confidence to act safely.
Training for the Hazards Your Roles Face
From first aid courses to fire warden training, our health and safety training programmes equip employees and managers with the confidence to act safely and responsibly. Whether your team works in hospitality, retail, or any other sector, each course is delivered by experienced trainers and tailored to your workplace.
Beyond core courses, we also advise on specialised needs such as Chemical Safety, Working at Height, and Confined Spaces through our occupational health and safety training, ensuring role-specific competence across your organisation. Training is also a legal duty in its own right, because the 2005 Act requires you to provide instruction adequate to the hazards each person faces.
- Equip staff with practical, life-saving skills.
- Build confidence to respond effectively in emergencies.
- Tailor training to your workplace for maximum impact.
A document that holds up when it's tested.
Safety Statements
Under Section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, every employer in Ireland is legally required to have a written safety statement. We create safety statements that are fully compliant with HSA requirements, easy to understand, and practical for day-to-day use. By setting out clear responsibilities and procedures, closely linked to your broader employment law obligations, we help you meet legal standards and create a safer workplace for all.
- Achieve full compliance with HSA requirements.
- Provide clarity on roles, responsibilities, and procedures.
- Build a safer workplace with clear, actionable documentation.
Speak to someone who knows your business.
Health & Safety and HR, From One Longford-Based Team
Most SMEs do not have a separate safety department and a separate HR department, so it makes little sense to buy them as separate services. PurpleTree is a Longford-based consultancy serving employers across Ireland, and we deliver health and safety as part of a wider HR relationship rather than as an isolated bolt-on.
That matters because safety and employment law constantly overlap: an accident becomes an absence case, a near miss becomes a disciplinary question, and a contractor dispute becomes a contracts question.
We scope each piece of safety work to your business and quote it in advance, and for employers on an outsourced HR retainer it can sit inside your monthly support alongside employment law advice. You speak to a consultant who knows your workplace, not a call centre working from a generic script. See how we price HR support before you commit.
- Health and safety delivered alongside HR, not as a disconnected service
- Scope and fee agreed in advance, never an open-ended hourly bill
- A named consultant who knows your workplace and your sector
- Grounded in Irish law and HSA practice, not adapted from a UK playbook
Safer by design
Build practical health and safety into your business with PurpleTree's Longford-based consultants. Health and safety projects are scoped to your workplace and quoted in advance, or covered within an outsourced HR retainer. See how we price HR support, then talk it through with our team.
Free 5-minute HR Health Check
See where your business stands before the WRC does
Answer 40 straightforward questions on contracts, working time, pay, leave and policies, and get a clear read on where your compliance gaps sit and what to fix first.
Common questions from employers
The law does not require you to hire a consultant, but it does require every employer to manage safety competently. The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 obliges you to identify hazards, assess the risks, hold a written safety statement and provide adequate training, and Section 18 requires you to appoint a competent person where that expertise does not exist in-house. Most Irish SMEs bring in a consultant precisely because that competence is what they lack internally. We become your competent person without the cost of a full-time safety hire.
We act as your competent person under the 2005 Act. That means writing and maintaining your safety statement, carrying out and documenting risk assessments, auditing your workplace against HSA standards, arranging the training your roles require, and supporting you if an incident occurs or the HSA inspects. The goal is a safety system that is compliant on paper and matches what actually happens on the floor, because a statement that does not reflect real work is the first thing an inspector spots.
Yes. Section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 requires every employer to have a written safety statement based on a risk assessment of the workplace. It must be specific to your business, brought to the attention of staff, and kept up to date. We prepare tailored safety statements built around how your workplace actually operates, rather than a generic template that falls apart the moment it is tested.
The Act requires the safety statement to be reviewed whenever it is no longer valid, for example after an accident, a change in work activity, new equipment or premises, or a change in legislation. In practice we recommend a formal review at least once a year and an immediate review whenever something material changes in how the work is done. A health and safety audit is the usual way to confirm everything is still current.
The Health and Safety Authority can inspect any workplace in Ireland, often without notice. An inspector can issue an improvement notice requiring you to fix a problem within a set time, or a prohibition notice that stops a dangerous activity immediately. Serious breaches can lead to prosecution; on conviction on indictment, fines under the Act reach up to €3 million and up to two years' imprisonment, and liability can extend to directors and managers personally. Our guide to health and safety obligations for Irish employers sets out what is at stake.
The duties apply from your first employee, not your fiftieth, and they apply to an office as much as a building site. Lower-risk workplaces carry lighter documentation, but every employer needs a safety statement, risk assessments and evidence that staff have been trained for the hazards they face. The HSA inspects small businesses too, and being a small team is not a defence if something goes wrong.
Health and safety work is scoped to your workplace, your sector and the risks involved, so we quote each piece of work in advance rather than running an open-ended bill. For employers who want safety covered alongside everything else, it can sit inside an outsourced HR retainer on a fixed monthly fee. See how we price HR support and ask us for a tailored quote for your business.
Yes, and for most SMEs that is the sensible approach. Safety, employment law and training overlap constantly, and a single workplace incident often raises all three at once. PurpleTree delivers health and safety as part of a broader outsourced HR relationship, so one team holds your contracts, your policies and your safety arrangements together instead of leaving you to coordinate separate providers.