A total of 47 people died during workplace accidents last year.
There was little change, however, in the year-on-year figure for workplace fatalities - 48 people died in 2012.
The Annual Report for 2013 from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) shows 28 prosecutions for serious safety and health breaches were concluded last year, and fines of €2.1m were imposed.
The most hazardous sectors to work in continue to be agriculture, fishing and construction.
However, there was a decrease in the number of workplace accidents - 6,598 incidents resulting in non-fatal injuries were reported in 2013, compared to 6,804 in 2012.
Most of the non-fatal accidents were caused during manual handling (33%), or because of slips, trips and falls (18%).
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The HSA says the sectors with the highest occupational injury rate, per 1,000 workers are;
- Construction at 16.7%
- Health and social work at 15.9%
- Agriculture at 14.2%
Martin O’Halloran, CEO of the HSA, said: “Enforcement is an important part of the work we do, but we must also use awareness-raising and information campaigns to complement inspection activity. Last year we targeted farming, vehicles, safety in small businesses, amongst others, and hopefully this approach will have a long-term positive effect on occupational safety and health.”
Meanwhile, Chairman Michael Horgan said: “We have been running programmes aimed at young people still in education, especially children from Agricultural and Fishing communities. They are the workers of tomorrow and also have an underrated influence on their parents.”
