Safety Challenge 2008

There was a great turnout and high level of safety skills on display again at this year's Power Generation Safety Challenge which was held in Portlaoise on December 3rd. 15 teams took part including two head office teams and a team from Fisheries Conservation. Building on the success of previous years, greater emphasis was placed on the practical skills components.

The objectives of the Safety Challenge are to increase our safety knowledge and learning, while putting some of our safety skills into practice while also raising safety awareness. Raising consciousness and awareness of the hazards around us in our working lives, how we need to assess the risks and how we need to guard and protect ourselves, are all crucial issues in eliminating injuries in the workplace.

There were seven practical components in this year's Safety Challenge which were targeted at raising awareness on some of the key safety issues facing us:

• OHSAS.
• NOSTRA.
• First Aid.
• Contractor Management.
• Fire Fighting.
• Confined Spaces.
• Hole In The Wall.

The second component of the challenge was a very enjoyable table quiz in which all teams participated, there were also entries from a number of teams who hadn't participated in the practical challenges.

The overall winners on the day and winners of the category award for First Aid were the Lough Ree Power team of Seamus Finn, John Sorohan, Kevin Barrett and Tom Walsh Second place and the category prize for the Fire Fighting task was taken by Marina team of Tom Holmes, John N O'Sullivan, Ger Slyne and Dermot Brophy. Third place and the category award for the Confined Space challenge went to the Head Office team of Frank Scott, Stephen Carrig, Bernard O'Sullivan and Mark Halpin.

The Aghada team of Mick O'Brien, Neil O'Sullivan, Ciarán Fitzgerald and Liam Fahey were the category winners for the "NOSTRA" Challenge". The OHSAS Challenge was won by the West Offaly team of Billy Duffy, Brian Flynn, Mark Lucas and John Prunty while Turlough Hill with team members Tony Pierce, Niall O'Neill, Rory Doyle and M.J. Darmody were successful in the Hole in the wall challenge. The final challenge on Contractor Management was won by North Wall with a team consisting of Paddy Cooney, Catherine Mc'Cann and Diarmuid Shore.

Prizes for the overall winners were presented at by Executive Director of Power Generation, Pat O'Doherty while the category awards were presented by Billy Menton, Nicholas Tarrant and Mick O'Mahony.

The "Group Visitors" team of Billy Menton, Nicholas Tarrant and Felim Keegan overcame a strong challenge from team "Hydro Power" and "The Spanish Hornpipes" to win the visitors section of the Table quiz.

Feedback from the day was very positive and the planning for next years event is already started. The organising group would like to thank all who participated and all who assisted in organising this year's successful event.