What is the Safe Pass Programme?

The Safe Pass Health and Safety Awareness Training Programme is a one-day programme run by FÁS, (Ireland's training and employment authority). Safe Pass aims to ensure that all construction site and local authority workers in Ireland have a basic knowledge of health and safety. This is to enable them to work on construction sites without being a risk to themselves or others who might be affected by their actions.
Employers are required by law to ensure that employees on construction sites in Ireland carry Safe Pass cards. As a result, employers must ensure that all employees are properly trained. This provision for Safe Pass training is set down in Schedule 6, SI 481 of 2001 (Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations, 2001). 

What are the aims of the Safe Pass programme?

The Safe Pass programme aims to:

Raise the standard of safety awareness in the Irish construction industry;
 
Ensure that all construction site workers undergo basic health and safety awareness training with the view to making a positive contribution to the prevention of accidents and avoidance of health hazards;
 
Maintain a register of construction site and local authority workers who have received such health and safety training
 
Provide all Safe Pass participants with a FÁS Safe Pass registration card that will indicate that the holders have attended a formal course in health and safety awareness.
All workers in the construction sector in Ireland, including construction apprentices registered under the Standards-Based Apprenticeship Scheme and trainees undergoing traineeships in the construction industry, must undergo safety awareness training and registration under the Safe Pass Programme before they begin work on a construction site.

Safe Pass Registration Cards

You will be issued with a Safe Pass Registration Card once you successfully complete the one-day Safe Pass training programme. This card lasts for 4 years from the date of the training course. In other words, if you completed Safe Pass training in June 2004, you will be issued with a card that expires in June 2008. You must then undergo a further Safe Pass training course when your Safe Pass card expires. However holders of cards which will expire before 31st August 2005, may exchange their existing card for a new temporary FAS Safe Pass Card – which will be valid until 31st August 2005. The Safe Pass registration card is about the size of a credit card. It shows the FÁS logo, a hologram, the registration and expiry date and your photo on the front. On the back of the card is written the text 'Health and Safety Training'. You must sign your name on the back of your card. View a sample Safe Pass card here. 

Content of the Safe Pass programme

The training modules in the Safe Pass Programme are:

Reasons for promoting safety;
Health and safety at work legislation;
Accident reporting and emergency procedure;
Accident prevention;
Health and hygiene;
Manual handling;
Working at heights;
Working with electricity, underground and overhead services;
Use of hand held equipment and tools;
Personal protective equipment;
Safe use of Vehicles;
Noise and vibrations;
Excavations and confined spaces. 

All workers in the construction sector in Ireland must have received FÁS Safe Pass safety awareness training and be in possession of a FÁS Safe Pass Card before they can work on construction sites.
Safe Pass Registration Cards expire after four years. You must undergo a further course once your Safe Pass Registration Card expires.
It is illegal to forge or alter a Registration Card or to make any other card that resembles a Registration card. All of the personal details on your Registration Card must be accurate and it is illegal for you to provide information to FÁS that is false.
Every contractor (or other person working on his or her behalf) is required by law to ensure that everyone under his or her direct control on a construction site has received Safe Pass training and has been issued with a current Registration Card as specified above. 

It costs between 80-130 euro to attend a Safe Pass course.
If you are currently unemployed, have got a job on a construction site but are required to have a Safe Pass Card before you start work, your FÁS local office may be able to provide assistance with the fee. This is only where you are unable to pay the 19 euro fee yourself. You may be required to show evidence that you have actually secured the job before you are given any assistance with the fee.