SDG 8.7.1 Proportion and Number of Children Aged 5‑17 Years Engaged in Child Labour
SDG 8.8.1 Fatal and Non-Fatal Occupational Injuries per 100,000 Workers
SDG 8.8.2 Level of National Compliance of Labour Rights
SDG 8.9.1 Tourism Direct GDP as a Proportion of Total GDP and in Growth Rate
SDG 8.7.1 Proportion and number of children aged 5‑17 years engaged in child labour, by sex and age, is covered under legislation by the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act 1996.
According to the Irish Statute Book under the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act 1996 employers cannot employ children under age 16 years in regular full-time jobs. Children under age 14 years cannot be employed. Children aged 14 and 15 years may be employed as follows:
Children aged 15 years may do 8 hours a week light work in school term time. The maximum working week for children outside school term time is 35 hours or up to 40 hours if they are on approved work experience.
The maximum working week for children aged 16 and 17 years is 40 hours with a maximum of 8 hours a day.
Further information is available on the Citizen Information website - Hours of work for young people and Rights of young workers.
SDG 8.8.1 Fatal and non-fatal occupational accidents per 100,000 workers, by sex and migrant status is reported by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).
The information below is taken from their Annual Review of Workplace Injury, Illness and Fatality Statistics 2018–2019 report.
Fatal accidents reported to the Health and Safety Authority
According to the HSA there were 47 fatal work-related accidents in Ireland in 2019. Of these, 41 involved worker victims and six involved non-worker victims. This is a considerable improvement since 1998 when 61 workers and 12 non-workers died in work-related accidents. The rate of fatal accidents to workers has fallen from 3.8 per 100,000 workers in 1998 to 1.8 per 100,000 workers in 2019.
Of 47 fatal accidents in 2019, two occurred to female victims and 45 occurred to male victims. Both female victims were non-workers, and both cases involved the transportation and storage sector. Figure 6.1 shows the age bands and gender of victims. Over one in two fatal accidents involved victims aged 55 years or more, with nine victims aged 55–64 years (19%) and 16 victims aged 65 years or more (34%).
| X-axis label | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| 0-17 Years | 3 | 0 |
| 18-24 Years | 2 | 0 |
| 25-34 Years | 1 | 0 |
| 35-44 Years | 5 | 1 |
| 45-54 Years | 10 | 0 |
| 55-64 Years | 9 | 0 |
| 65 Years and Over | 15 | 1 |
Of the 47 fatal accidents in 2019, 16 (34%) occurred to victims aged 65 years or more. This age group was particularly prominent in agriculture, forestry and fishing, where 13 (59%) fatal accidents occurred to victims aged 65 years or more. By comparison, in construction one fatal accident (8%) occurred to a victim aged 65 years or more.
In Table 6.1 we can see that the largest number of fatal accidents occurred in agriculture and fishing with 22, (20 workers and two non-workers), 47% of all fatal accidents in 2019. Twelve fatal accidents occurred to workers in construction. Fatal accidents occurred to 6 workers in transportation and storage - four of whom were workers and two non-workers.
Of the 47 fatal accidents in 2019, five occurred to victims from other EU countries. No fatal accidents occurred to victims from outside the EU. The rate of fatal accident to Irish workers was 1.9 per 100,000 workers, while the rate for non Irish workers was 1.3 per 100,000 workers. See Table 6.2.
The number of fatal accidents per 100,000 workers fell from 2.3 in 2012 to 1.8 by 2019.
There were large regional variations over this time period. In 2019, the number of fatal accidents per 100,000 workers ranged from a high of 5.8 in the South East to only 0.8 in Dublin. See Table 6.3.
Non-fatal accidents reported to the Health and Safety Authority
In 2019, 9,335 non-fatal accidents were reported to the Health and Safety Authority. Of these, 95% related to workers. The highest number of accidents were reported in the NACE economic sector of health and social work, which accounted for 20.8% of all injuries. See Table 6.4.
SDG 8.8.2 Level of national compliance of labour rights (freedom of association and collective bargaining) based on International Labour Organization (ILO) textual sources and national legislation, by sex and migrant status.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment leads on Ireland’s engagement with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO International Unit within the Department ensures that Ireland’s annual reporting obligations to the ILO are fulfilled. Ireland has ratified all of the fundamental labour conventions, including C098 - Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No.98) and C087 - Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No.87).
As part of the regular reporting cycle Ireland is due to report on these conventions in 2021. Annual report requests can be viewed on the ILO website through Reporting Obligations.
Reports are reviewed by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations. The Committee on Freedom of Association provides further oversight on Conventions 87 and 98.
SDG 8.9.1 Tourism direct GDP as a proportion of total GDP and in growth rate is published by the CSO, Tourism and Travel Annual Series.
Overseas Tourism and Travel Earnings from trips to Ireland was €6,867 million in 2019. It rose from 2.5% of GNI in 2010 to 2.9% by 2014 but dropped since then to 2.5% by 2019. See Table 6.5.
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