Safety is the focus at Limerick's Ports

A NUMBER of events focused on safety in docks both in Limerick and nationally are taking place this week.

As part of a major safety awareness drive, the Shannon Foynes Port Company has joined with sister facilities across the country to host and promote the second annual Irish Port Safety Week.

The goal of the week is to highlight and enhance collective safety responsibility and awareness.

Events are taking place in Foynes, the Ted Russell Docks in the city, as well as the Port Company's facility at Cappa in Co Clare.

John Carlton, the engineering and port services manager with the Shannon Foynes Port Company said: “This is about all the main Irish ports coming together recognising that ports need to be a safe place to work, and trying to standardise and improve the safety standards throughout the sector.”

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Irish Port Safety Week kicked off on Monday, and will go onto Friday afternoon.

Throughout this Wednesday in Cappa, there will be emergency response drills with new senior coxswain Brian O’Toole.

Shannon Foynes Port Company driving Safety forward throughout Irish Ports Safety Week”
Pictured at the launch of Irish Ports Safety Week are SFPC Safety Committee members along with Sponsors Niaron Ltd. #irishportsafetyweek pic.twitter.com/d1Pw67K4w8

— Shannon Foynes Port (@ShannonFoynes) October 24, 2022

While the same venue will see fire-drills and firefighting techniques in the afternoon.

On Thursday, there will be an employee wellness lunchtime event in Foynes followed by an emergency response exercise which will simulate a 'man overboard' scenario.

Similar events will take place at the Ted Russell Docks in the city including an emergency response exercise on Friday which will see members of Limerick Fire and Rescue simulate the retrieval of casualties from a ship.

There’s a tremendous mix of people attending Irish Ports of State, explained Mr Carlton, who added: “Shannon Foynes Port Company would have a relatively small headcount but we would have several hundred people in our port at any one time. So it’s about making sure when these people come through the gate, they feel safe and the operations they conduct are carried out in a safe manner.”

Port Safety Week, which is in its second year, has helped provide uniform standards across all Irish Ports of State, he feels, and he wants to see haulage companies also take part in activities of this nature in future.

Shannon Foynes Port Company is hosting Five Days of Events for the Second Annual Irish Port Safety Week#IrishPortSafetyWeek

To view the national press release, please follow:https://t.co/fBErruDOEl pic.twitter.com/cwMvpG2uTV

— Shannon Foynes Port (@ShannonFoynes) October 20, 2022

“It’s all about collective awareness,” explains Mr Carlton, "We want to see that if a haulier picks up a load in Waterford Port, drives to Cork Port to unload it, and has to backload out of Foynes to deliver to Dublin, that the standards expected of them are the same in each and every port, where they probably were not historically.”

The Health and Safety Authority is on board for the awareness week, and it’s involvement shows a wider recognition that the hazards in ports are different to other industrial areas.

“One of the driving forces is us recognising the hazards in a Port of State are unique to the sector. You have some huge equipment in terms of cranes and loading shovels interacting with people and other pieces of machinery, all adjacent to the water. That can be happening 24/7 in dark and rain and sleet and snow. Shipping doesn’t stop, the supply chain doesn’t stop. So all these factors are there, and we individually mitigate these risks and try to mitigate them down,” explained Mr Carlton.

“People do not realise the scale of what goes on in any port. Cranes in a single lift can take 30 tonnes in one go, or can cycle out cargoes of 700 to 800 tonnes an hour. There are all sorts of risks around that,” he concluded.