12th September 2025
Alan Dillon, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment with special responsibility for Employment, Small Businesses and Retail has approved a Code of Practice; Safe Use of Industrial Trucks in accordance with Section 60 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (the ‘2005 Act’).
The Code of Practice came into effect on 12 September 2025. The Code of Practice provides practical guidance as to the observance of the provisions of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 with regard to the use of industrial trucks in workplaces.
It sets out the basic roles and responsibilities of those who have duties in relation to ensuring the safe operation of industrial trucks and the training of industrial truck operators. It supersedes and replaces the 2001 Code of Practice, Code of Practice: Rider-operated lift trucks: operator training, published under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989.
The Code is relevant to anyone who owns, hires, leases, handles, operates, stores, transports, maintains or manages the use of a rider-operated industrial lift truck in the workplace.
In welcoming the Code, Minister Dillon said:
“I welcome this Code as it is an important piece of work from the Health and Safety Authority. This Code of Practice addresses many of the issues associated with the operation of industrial trucks in the workplace and will help to raise awareness of the associated hazards. This is another factor in ensuring all employees have a healthy, safe working environment which is of the upmost importance”.
Mark Cullen, Interim CEO of the Health and Safety Authority also welcomes the signing of the new Code:
“Industrial trucks are among the most hazardous vehicle types in the workplace and the dangers associated with their use in the workplace are often underestimated. We continue to see incidents involving industrial trucks, and such incidents are usually serious and often fatal. Industrial trucks are very heavy, even when unloaded, and there is little protection for pedestrians working nearby. It is very important that employers have robust safety systems for the use of industrial trucks to protect workers using them or working in their vicinity. It is also essential that all persons operating industrial trucks are fully competent to do so.”
In the 10-year period from 2010 to 2019, there were 490 reported work-related deaths in the Republic of Ireland. Of these, 217 (44%) involved vehicles, of which loaders/telehandlers accounted for 20 (9%) and forklifts accounted for 13 (6%).
This new Code of Practice has an increased scope which addresses many of the issues associated with the operation of industrial trucks in the modern workplace. It applies to the use of all types of rider-operated industrial trucks in all workplaces.
It is hoped that the new Code will achieve several objectives, including:
- Raising awareness of the hazards associated with lift truck operation
- Promoting the consistent application of safe practices when using lift trucks
- Highlighting the employers’ responsibilities to ensure their workplace is safe, their operators are competent and they provide adequate supervision
- Helping employers to do effective risk assessments and implement safe management systems
- Providing a framework for managing industrial truck operations in a more holistic, safe, and sustainable way by introducing new requirements based on a Safe Systems Approach of:
- safe drivers/operators,
- safe vehicles,
- safe workplace, and
- safe operations.
- Raising the overall standard and consistency of lift truck training. The HSA want to encourage those trainers who currently deliver excellent training courses to continue to do so and to raise the quality of training courses to a minimum, common, standard by laying down basic course syllabi (Level 5 QQI) for counterbalance and reach forklift trucks and minimum qualification requirements for trainers/instructors (Level 6 QQI “Train the Trainer”) while strengthening requirements on course duration and trainee: operator ratio
The Code of Practice; Safe Use of Industrial Trucks is available at www.hsa.ie.
ENDS
Back to Department News