Cellar safety in pubs is being tackled ahead of Christmas trade with help of the Licensed Premises/Cellar Safety campaign.

The Irish Brewers Association and the Health & Safety Authority have co-launched a programme designed for Publicans and Bar Managers to enhance basic safety practices in cellars, cold rooms and across all areas of bars, restaurants, hotels and pubs around the country.

The Cellar safety programme is the first of its kind in Ireland and aims to improve safety in the workplace environment for thousands of workers / service providers and for customers of the hospitality sector. This new programme was designed to address safety issues arising from serious accidents in bar cellars across Europe in recent years.

It is aimed at helping pubs to protect their staff and meet legal requirements to ensure their workplace is a safe place to operate in. The programme can be accessed through the HSA’s existing online risk assessment tool, BeSMART.ie. This tool contains a wide range of risk assessments for various licensed operators, and uses a simple four-step process to guide participants in assessing the status of safety features within their premises.

Speaking at the launch of the programme, Head of the Irish Brewers Association, Jonathan McDade said:

“This initiative is the first of its kind in Ireland. We’re hoping it will benchmark health & safety standards for all licensed operators in Europe. BeSMART.ie is quick and easy to use and will give bar managers an idea of how safe their cellars are and if any safety issues need to be addressed.”

Martin O’Dea, Senior Inspector in the Health & Safety Authority said:

“We were delighted to work with the Irish Brewers Association on developing this safety initiative. It will make pubs, restaurants and hotels safer to work in and will reduce the likelihood of costly law suits that can easily be avoided. We’d urge all licensed operators to use BeSMART.ie to create a safer working environment.”