What are the PSDP and PSCS on an Irish building site?

How it works in Ireland

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013 put duties on the client, the designers and the contractors of any construction project. Two roles tie them together. The PSDP looks after safety during the design: spotting hazards that can be designed out, passing on the risks that remain, and preparing the safety file. The PSCS takes over once building starts: coordinating the contractors on site, keeping a safety and health plan, and making sure the site is safe to work on.

Where more than one contractor is working or is likely to work on the project, the client must appoint a PSDP before design starts and a PSCS before construction starts, in writing. In practice almost every house build has more than one trade, so the appointments are normally needed. A client who appoints someone must be satisfied that the person is competent and has the resources to do the job, and should keep the written appointment.

On a typical self-build the architect, engineer or architectural technologist takes the PSDP role, often at a separate fee, and the main contractor is appointed PSCS. If you manage the project yourself with direct labour, nobody else will automatically be PSCS, so you must appoint someone competent. Doing it yourself is possible only if you are competent, and most first-time builders are not. A site manager or safety consultant can be appointed for the construction stage on a fee basis.

The roles matter because the client has a legal duty to appoint them, and an accident or Health and Safety Authority (HSA) inspection will ask who they were. The regulations treat a client building their own home differently from a commercial client in some respects. Check the HSA guidance and ask your designer which of the client duties apply to you, and do not assume the rules do not apply.

Larger projects must also be notified to the HSA, but that threshold is not normally reached by a single house. Ask your PSDP to confirm it.

At the end of the project the PSDP hands the safety file to the client.

A common mistake

Appointing the PSCS only in practice, by assuming the builder will be it. Write the appointment down, before work begins, and if you have no main contractor, appoint a named competent person. Verbal agreements leave the client holding the duty when something goes wrong.