How to Write a Risk Assessment in Ireland
A risk assessment is the foundation of every safe workplace in Ireland — and the law requires one. Here is how to produce a clear, practical assessment that actually protects your people.
Every employer in Ireland has a legal duty to assess the risks in their workplace. Yet many businesses treat the risk assessment as a form to be filled in and filed away. Done properly, it is something far more useful: a working document that tells you exactly what could cause harm and what you are doing about it.
This guide walks through how to write a risk assessment that meets the law and earns its keep.
The legal duty
The requirement comes from section 19 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. It places a duty on every employer to identify the hazards in the workplace, assess the risks they present, and decide on the measures needed to control them. The findings then inform the workplace safety statement, required under section 20. The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) is the body that oversees these duties.
A risk assessment is not paperwork for inspectors. It is the employer's own honest answer to a simple question: what could hurt someone here, and how am I stopping it?
Understand the language
Two words do a lot of work. A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm — a trailing cable, a chemical, a loud machine. A risk is the likelihood that the hazard will actually cause harm, combined with how serious that harm could be. The assessment is the process of looking at each hazard and judging the risk so you can decide what to do about it.
How to write the assessment, step by step
1. Identify the hazards
Walk the workplace and look honestly at what could cause harm. Talk to the people doing the work — they often know the hazards best. Consider routine and non-routine tasks, maintenance, cleaning and visitors. Review any past incidents or near misses.
2. Decide who might be harmed and how
For each hazard, identify who is at risk: employees, contractors, visitors, and anyone particularly vulnerable, such as new or young workers or those with specific needs. Note how they could be harmed.
3. Evaluate the risk and decide on controls
Judge how likely harm is and how serious it could be, then apply the hierarchy of control: eliminate the hazard, substitute it, use engineering controls, apply organisational measures, and only then rely on personal protective equipment. The aim is to reduce risk so far as is reasonably practicable.
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4. Record your findings
Write down the significant hazards, who is at risk, the controls already in place, and any further action needed, with who is responsible and by when. The record should be clear enough that someone unfamiliar with the task can understand the risks and the controls.
5. Review and update
A risk assessment is never finished. Review it when work changes, new equipment is introduced, after an incident, or at sensible intervals. An out-of-date assessment can be worse than none, because it gives false confidence.
Common pitfalls to avoid
- Copying a generic template without checking it fits your actual workplace.
- Listing hazards but not controls — the assessment must lead to action.
- Ignoring non-routine work such as maintenance and breakdowns, where many incidents occur.
- Leaving it on a shelf rather than using it to brief and protect staff.
- Never reviewing it after things change.
Key takeaways
- Risk assessment is a legal duty under section 19 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005.
- A hazard is the potential to cause harm; risk is the likelihood and severity of that harm.
- Follow five steps: identify hazards, decide who is harmed, evaluate and control, record findings, review.
- Apply the hierarchy of control and reduce risk so far as is reasonably practicable.
- The findings feed your section 20 safety statement and must be kept up to date.
Build the skill across your team
Writing a sound risk assessment is a skill, and it improves with training. A short, structured course gives managers and supervisors the confidence to spot hazards, judge risk and choose effective controls — and gives the business a clear record that the people doing this important work are competent to do it. Get the assessment right and everything else, from PPE to safe systems of work, falls into place.
