A LOOK BACK ON DUBLIN PORT SAFETY WEEK 2023

The third annual Irish Port Safety Week drew to a close at Dublin Port last week, Dublin Port Company had joined the other Port Authorities of Ireland to host and promote the initiative which ran from October 23rd to 27th. Irish Port Safety Week allowed the Port Authorities of Ireland to work collaboratively through the Irish Port Safety Forum to highlight a collective awareness of and responsibility for health and safety, aiming to improve safety culture in the port sector by sharing experience and knowledge.

There was a jam packed calendar of events throughout the week which took place at the new Substation and the Pumphouse heritage zone on Alexandra Road, allowing port users to enhance their safety knowledge at Dublin Port.

The themes of the Irish Port Safety Week included:

The Awareness of Port Golden Rules
Class 3 PPE
Emergency Response
Traffic Management
Employee Wellness
Water Safety
Safe and Healthy Work in the Digital Age, which is the overall theme of European Safety Week

The Road Safety Authority Shuttle Bus was on site for two days displaying the continued focus on road safety in and around a busy port. The Shuttle Bus is a highly popular tool that brings road safety education to life in an engaging, interactive and memorable way. Dublin Port sees a variety of vehicles from HGV’s, cars, tug masters and caravans utilising the internal road network daily, so Barry Keatley from Talentpool Virtual was also on site all week providing virtual training with staff on a wide range of vehicles and machinery.

On Day 2 JMJ Safety Training held a presentation on a Human Centric approach to safety, there was awareness talks on the importance of Class 3 PPE and CPR training in the marquee at the Pumphouse. We also had demonstrations on Doyle Shipping Group’s new tug master.

Day 3 saw 360 Cycles complete two days of free bicycle/scooter safety inspections for Port employees, focusing on brakes, tyres and chains. While Port Security helped to raise awareness of road safety to cyclists and scooter users by issuing class 3 hi visibility vests, bicycle lights and hi visibility backpack covers. The day was then rounded off with an extremely thought provoking and well delivered performance of ‘Overloaded‘ which is an interactive workshop on a workplace accident performed by Theatre at Work.

The penultimate day of #IrishPortSafetyWeek did not disappoint and was another packed day of events. Brian from Pollution and Waste Services delivered a presentation on Oil Spill Response and among the attendees were staff from Wills Bros Ltd, Murphy Group and Kilwex who were out in force at events throughout the week to show their support. Killian O’Kelly of the RNLI gave instruction on First Response Training to a person falling in the water and also covered the use of throw bags. Motty from Delta Sleep gave a talk on Sleep and how to manage Sleep around shift work and PJ Carroll provided first aid training providing a great demonstration on how to deal with a choking incident, thanks to Kurtis Leonard for volunteering!

In addition on Day 4 we welcomed over 100 children from St Patrick’s Girls’ National School, Ringsend, and St. Joseph’s Co-ed Primary School, East Wall, to the Pumphouse for a Colouring Competition Award Ceremony!

The children coloured in pictures relating to port safety, goodie bags were handed out and there were numerous prizes awarded to children from both primary schools for their brilliant colouring skills. A huge thanks goes to Pollution a Waste Services who kindly sponsored all the prizes. To conclude there was a Q&A session with a member of the RNLI, who demonstrated how to put on and inflate a lifejacket, which is vital for safety near the water.

The final day of Dublin Port Safety Week rounded off a succesful week with five days of well-attended events. The morning saw a meet and greet with a large gathering of members from the yacht and boating community at Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club, providing a reflection of the busy summer season and a review of the Safe Navigation in the Bay campaign and The Safe Passage and Communication Certificate rolled out by Jimmy Murray of the Irish Nautical Trust.

Later that morning the Water Based Emergency Services took excellent care in rescuing Fred the DPC manikin in a man overboard exercise at Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club. Thanks to RNLI DunLaoghaire Inshore Lifeboat, Dublin Fire Brigade Rescue 2 Boat, The Irish Coast Guard – Howth and An Garda Síochána for their attendance and great input. In the afternoon Dublin Fire Bridgade carried out an exercise using a 30m ladder to conduct a ‘rescue’ from a high ledge of the R&H Hall building. Not one for the faint hearted!

The week was a huge success allowing Port users to collaborate on a wide variety of health and safety topics as was evident throughout the week with attendees from all seven unitised terminal operators; Dublin Ferryport Terminals, Doyle Shipping Group (DSG), Irish Ferries, Peel Ports, Seatruck Ferries, Stena Line and P&O Ferries.

A huge thanks to all who made Port Safety Week 2023 a big success and for the detailed planning and implementation by all the EHS teams around the Port.

Roll on next year!