Glenveagh pleads guilty to safety breach over Wicklow building site death seven years ago
The Wicklow PeopleA construction company has admitted breaching health and safety laws following the death of a Sligo man who fell from scaffolding at a building site in Greystones, Co Wicklow in 2019.
Three construction companies appeared before Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court in Health and Safety Authority prosecutions relating to the death of the man.
Glenveagh Construction Limited, with a registered business address at Block B, Maynooth Business Campus, County Kildare, entered a plea to count two on the indictment.
The court heard that on December 9, 2019, at a construction site in Marina Village, Greystones, the company failed in its legal duty as an employer to properly manage safety on site.
Specifically, Glenveagh allowed people who were not their employees to carry out work from scaffolding that was unsafe, lacked proper edge protection, and exposed workers to a serious risk of falling.
As a result of this unsafe scaffolding, Gerry O’Connell fell, suffered serious injuries, and later died.
This amounted to a breach of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, as Glenveagh failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that people at the workplace were not exposed to risks to their safety.
A native of Sligo, Mr O’Connell died on Thursday, December 12, 2019.
Niamh Collins of A&L Goodbody was arraigned on behalf of Glenveagh.
Peamount Construction Limited and K.D.K. Scaffolding Limited have yet to enter pleas. Counsel for Peamount stated that “progress” will be made on Tuesday, February 10.
Judge Patrick Quinn adjourned the matter until April 14, with a sentencing date for Glenveagh to be fixed.