Tree work prosecutions in Ireland: what the HSA published
Tree felling prosecutions listed by the Health and Safety Authority of Ireland, with the court, the breach as the authority words it and the fine in euros.
Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 8, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.
This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It lists tree work prosecutions that the Health and Safety Authority of Ireland (HSA) published on its prosecutions pages, as those pages report them. Names of injured people are left out, and the individual accused in the second entry is not named on the HSA page either. Each entry is as published, and the appeal status is only what the HSA states.
Entries
| Date and court | Defendant and breach as published | Outcome as published |
|---|---|---|
| February 10, 2016, Cork Circuit Criminal Court (heard on indictment) | Cork County Council, which pleaded guilty to one charge. The HSA page says that on November 23, 2012, at Carr's Hill, Douglas, County Cork, the council did not run a chainsaw tree felling job in a way that protected its employees as far as was reasonably practicable, because it did not provide adequate equipment. The charge is section 8(2)(a) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, contrary to section 77(2)(a). Link: HSA prosecutions page for 2016 | Pleaded guilty. Fine of €48,000. The page does not describe an injury and does not mention an appeal. |
| June 28, 2018, Mullingar District Court, County Westmeath (heard summarily) | An individual, listed on the page as "Prosecution of an Individual". The accused pleaded guilty to one charge. The page says that on April 11, 2017 a person was injured while helping to fell trees. The charge is section 12, contrary to section 79(9)(a) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. Link: HSA prosecutions page for 2018 | Guilty. Fine of €500. The page does not mention an appeal. |
How these entries were found
The HSA's prosecutions index says it covers prosecutions the Authority started, or that the Director of Public Prosecutions took on its behalf, since 2005, heard either in the District Court (summarily) or in the Circuit Court (on indictment). On October 8, 2026 the index offered one page for each year from 2005 to 2018 and no page for a later year. All fourteen year pages were opened and searched for trees, felling, chainsaws, chippers, forestry and timber work. Two entries matched. A match on a word such as timber-framed houses in a 2010 construction case was not counted, because the case was not tree work.
What the two entries show
The two entries differ in who was charged. The 2016 charge names an employer, a local authority, and rests on the employer's duty to manage a work activity safely and to provide adequate equipment. The 2018 charge is brought against an individual under a different section of the same 2005 Act, and the page words the harm only as personal injury while felling trees. Neither page lists the tree size, the saw or the crew, so this page does not state them. The 2016 fine of €48,000 and the 2018 fine of €500 are the amounts the pages give and are not a guide to what any other case would carry.
An absence of rows after 2018 does not mean that no later case was heard. It means the index pages read on October 8, 2026 stop at 2018. The HSA page also says a number of prosecutions may be under appeal and their status may change. For where other regulators publish, see the guide to tree work prosecutions by country.
To correct or remove an entry, write to the address at the foot of this page.