Most of these activities are carried on by independent businesses, whose owners are responsible for the health and safety performance of their operations. One of the twin tasks of the DAA is to provide the framework within which these independent businesses operate commercially. At the commercial level, that includes the provision of premises and facilities, which enables these businesses to operate. The other task facing the Authority is to manage its own business operations.

Health and safety straddles both tasks, so that it falls to the DAA health and safety department at Dublin Airport to advise the Authority on the health and safety aspects of its businesses and on the co-operation required between the businesses operating within the airport perimeter.

The task is akin to advising a large town on the safety issues affecting the citizens of the town, the town council’s own employees and the co-operation required between all the businesses (both public and private sector) operating in that town. That is the challenge facing the health and safety department at Dublin Airport.

PUBLIC SERVICE ETHOS
The health and safety department at Dublin Airport is small, given the scale of the airport’s operations. The team consists of just three people: health and safety manager Denis Murray, health and safety compliance manager, Eamon Murtagh, and the health and safety administration officer, Brian Conway.

What can be said is that the team works in an environment where there is a strong public service ethos. The most visible aspect is the defibrillation service provided by the Airport Fire Service. Widely praised in the national press and broadcast media, the defibrillation service is credited with saving 14 lives since it was first established in 2004.

Less well-known, except within the specialist press, is the support given by the DAA and its predecessor Aer Rianta to efforts to improve workplace safety. The Authority (then Aer Rianta) was involved in the SCARF project.
More recently, the Authority part-funded and provided practical support aimed at finding solutions to manual handling injuries in airport baggage handling operations. The research for the manual handling solutions project was carried out at Dublin Airport.

Avery practical example of that public service ethos is that this summer four students on the UCD health and safety diploma course will spend time at Dublin Airport gaining work experience.

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
While the safety department at the airport is small, it operates with a management framework that encompasses the operations of the DAA at Dublin, Cork, Shannon and DAA’s international operations run by Aer Rianta International (see Table B: Management Structure).

The DAA has a group turnover of €631m, employs 3,600 people – over 1,700 of them at Dublin Airport – and is currently in the midst of a €2bn development programme at Dublin Airport. The DAA’s corporate safety statement applies to all three airports in the group.

At group level Denis Murray and his colleagues on the health and safety team are members of the DAA’s Health and Safety Advisory Group (HASAG). The health and safety managers and staff from the three airports in the DAA group are members of HASAG.

HASAG fills a role akin to that of the better-known LASAG in the local authority sector, sharing experiences and learning from one another. HASAG meetings, which are held every six weeks, rotate between Dublin, Cork and Shannon. This group reviews the company Safety Statement on an annual basis.

At the airport, the health and safety department is linked into the management structure and reports up the line to the airport director at least every quarter. Every quarter Denis Murray reviews health and safety issues with the airport senior management team. At these meetings discussions cover matters including accident trends, training programmes and new legislation.

But what he also believes is significant is that health and safety is now an agenda subject for every managers’ meeting, be it meetings of the senior management team or other management meetings. On top of that, Murray holds regular meetings with department managers to discuss health and safety issues in their areas. Murray says that he believes that across management, at all levels, “there is buy-in to health and safety”.

Through the monthly meetings of the Safety Committee, the health and safety department reaches out to the 1,700 DAA workers at the airport. DAA workers from every section of the airport are represented on the committee.

Eamon Murtagh says that the types of issue that arise range from the department providing information on safety statement updates and incident statistics to safety issues surrounding actions such as the searching of vehicles by the airport’s own police service.

Within the wider business community in the airport, the Airport Operators Committee (AOC) discusses issues which impact on their operations and staff, such as stand allocation, safety and parking. Murray and his team work collaboratively with the health and safety teams of the larger companies at the airport, in what he describes as “a structured manner” and as and when required with all others.

DIVERSE SERVICE
The health and safety department deals with what Eamon Murtagh describes as a lot of detail. The activities of the department are quite diverse.The issues the department can be asked to advise on range from access and work at heights to carrying out a risk assessments on new equipment, such as the recently acquired new fire simulator.

One area that every passenger passing through the airport comes into contact with is the passenger screening area operated by the airport search unit. Most will know it as the place where one empties one’s pockets, unfurls one’s umbrella and loads hand baggage and assorted items such as coats and wallets into trays on a conveyor belt.

Every passenger will have noticed the level of manual handling activity involved. Over 600 staff work in this area. Every one of them has received formal manual handling training. A team of a dozen or so workers in the area have been trained as manual handling instructors.

Another major training activity undertaken by the health and safety team is the health and safety awareness training programme for managers. All managers are required to attend this programme. This programme which was developed by the health and safety department has, Murray says, played a crucial role in raising the profile of health and safety in the DAA. Managers attending the course are presented with very useful booklet, The Management of Safety in Dublin Airport Authority, which gives a concise overview of legal requirements and practical guidance on risk assessments.

Another initiative by the health and safety department was the publication in 2001 of the Contractors Safety Handbook. Most recently updated in 2009, the handbook covers 24 different topics, some unique to airports, such as working airside. Before a contractor’s workers can work airside, they must have completed the airport’s training for work in the ‘movement area’ programme and hold an airside work permit.

The health and safety department published a Safe Work Procedures Manual, which is updated in light of changes in the workplace, introduction of new equipment and as requested by the staff and management.

A more recent initiative has been the development of a new electronic permit-to-work system. The system ensures that no work can be undertaken until health and safety approval has been issued.

WORKING WITH FIRE AND POLICE SERVICES
The DAA’s own fire and police services have a close involvement in health and safety issues and work closely with the health and safety department.

The Airport Police Service, which is headed by chief airport police officer Tom O’Rourke, has a staff of 125. The service operates on a 24x365 basis. The Airport Fire Service, which is headed by chief airport fire officer Gerry Keogh, has a staff of 130. The service also operates on a 24x365 basis. The fire service is responsible for the 20 defibrillators currently in service at the Airport. Fire service personnel are trained to first responder level, while a number have progressed to paramedic.

DEVELOPING THE AIRPORT
For many years, most visitors to Dublin Airport have remarked on the level of construction activity. Some find it irksome (a reality acknowledged by the DAA on its website), but the reality is that the work reflects national progress. Passenger numbers at the airport have risen from just under 13m ten years ago to over 20m now, peaking at 23m in 2007.

Branded as the Transforming Dublin Airport project, the work has been co-ordinated by GPCP (Group Projects Capital Programme). At this stage most of the country’s major contractors have worked at the airport. Currently work on the Terminal 2 project is in full swing (Terminal 2 is the new building on the left as one approaches the set down area). The plan is that when the programme of work is finished, Dublin Airport will have the capacity to handle up to 35m passengers.

Behind the scenes, the Transforming Dublin Airport project has required a huge commitment to safety. A dedicated safety structure has been established to deal with the health and safety issues of the project.

RECOGNITION
The effort put into health and safety at Dublin Airport was recognised by NISO last year, when DAA Dublin Airport won the NISO Transport Sector award. The award is the culmination of a series of NISO awards achieved by DAA Dublin Airport over the years.

For many years past, DAA Dublin Airport has been awarded NISO’s Highly Commended award in the annual awards. Brian Conway, who pulled the entry together, says all sections of the DAA’s operations at the airport were involved in putting the entry together

Asked what advice he would give his counterparts in the health and safety community, based on his many years of experience of promoting and advising on health and safety at Ireland’s busiest workplace, Denis Murray says the most important thing is “Getting health and safety recognised as a key priority at all levels of management”.

The next most important thing is “making sure everybody understands their health and safety responsibilities”. He urges colleagues to keep on “pushing to get buy-in” and warns that “you can never relax”.