One of the most interesting facts about the Irish Construction industry is that there is no legal requirement for a construction company to hold any from of construction insurance! In fact, the only insurance an Irish contractor is legally obliged to have is basic motor insurance on his/her motor vehicles!

Although there is no legal requirement under Irish law for a contractor to hold adequate Construction Insurance it is extremely important that adequate cover is in place.

One of the most important reasons is the high injury & mortality rate on Irish Construction sites. One major positive of the recent construction boom is the fatality per thousand ratio has fallen in recent years although it is still at an unacceptable level.

For example, in 2001 28% of workplace fatalities were Construction related and the Irish Construction industry is consistently second only to the Irish Agriculture& Forestry Industry.

As many primary contractors require their subcontractors to hold Construction Insurance the reality is that although Construction Insurance is not a legal requirement it is usually a prerequisite to obtaining work on the majority of the countries construction sites so the need for construction insurance is a necessity in everything but law!

Although Construction Insurance is quite a complex field the four main areas of cover are as follows:

• Public Liability Insurance

• Employers Liability Insurance

• Contractors All Risks

• Personal Accident

Public Liability Insurance

Public liability insurance [PL] provides cover in the event that the policyholder is sued by a third party who feels that they have suffered injury or loss as a result of the policyholders negligence (lack of care).

Consider the following examples where Public Liability Insurance will provide cover:

• You run a plumbing company. One day you are called to an office to sort out a problem in their kitchen. Accidentally, you burst a pipe, and flood the office. Your client then makes a claim against you for the damage to their carpet and computer systems which have been damaged by the water.

• You are a building contractor. While walking along scaffolding one of your men drops a piece of equipment which falls to the street, injuring a passing pedestrian. The pedestrian makes a claim against your firm.

Obviously these are very simplified examples and we haven’t discussed the complexities of Products Liability/Liability Law/Duty of Care etc however it should provide a basic understanding of Public Liability Insurance.

Employers Liability Insurance

Employers Liability Insurance [EL] provides cover if any of your employees suffer physical injury or death, and it is proven that as an employer you acted negligently and subsequently could have prevented their loss. If they then decide to pursue you for compensation the insurer will pay the cost of the claim.

Consider the following examples where Employers Liability Insurance will provide cover:

• You run a carpentry company. One of your employees loses a finger while using a chop saw and decides to claim against you for his injury

• You are a scaffolding contractor and are erecting scaffolding around an apartment block. While erecting the scaffolding one of your employees falls and suffers severe bodily injury. He decides to claim against your firm.

Please note that Public & Employers Liability is offered ‘hand in hand’, that is when arranging construction insurance you will need to arrange both Public Liability & Employers Liability Insurance together [Also known as Combined Liability Insurance] as Employers Liability Insurance is not available on a ‘Stand Alone’ basis..

Contractors All Risks Insurance

Contractors All Risks insurance (also known as Contract Works insurance) is an insurance policy specially designed for builders and a number of other trades working at a contract site. Contractors All Risks insurance can include cover for contract works, own plant, hired-in plant and employee’s tools. The main part of the contractors all risks insurance is the contract works section which provides cover for the property being worked on (e.g. new house, etc.). However, cover for the existing property is excluded (e.g. the existing structure when building an extension) and must continue to be insured under its own insurance cover.

Consider the following examples where Contractors All Risks Insurance will provide cover:

• You are a building contractor and are building a house for resale. So far you have spent €200,000 on materials and labour. The property catches fire and is destroyed before it has been completed. • You are groundwork’s contractor and are presently digging foundations for a new housing development. Naturally you leave your excavator on site until the contract is completed however one night your excavator is stolen.

Personal Accident Insurance

Personal Accident Insurance [Also known as Income Protection Insurance] is highly recommended for a sole traders, business partners and company directors as a combined liability policy does not cover any injury caused to a sole trader/business partner while it is extremely difficult for a company director to sue his/her own company. A policy can be tailored to your exact needs and policies include a tax free monthly benefit, a lump sum [capital benefit] and hospital cash.

Consider the following examples where Personal Accident Insurance will provide cover:

• You’re a self employed carpenter with no employees. You cut your hand and are unable to work for eight months. As you have Personal Accident cover you receive a tax free benefit of €1,500 after one month and continue to receive this amount until you return to work.

• Although Personal Accident/Income Protection insurance is no substitute for full time earnings it will provide you with an income if you are unable to earn and it will reduce your financial worries at a time when your recovery should be your number one priority.

Machinery & Plant Insurance

Machinery & Plant Insurance is normally arranged on a case by case basis and provides Accidental Damage Fire & Theft Cover on Machinery. This policy is normally taken by contractors who wish to cover a specific number of items.

Health & Safety Executive

In Ireland the HSE [Health & Safety Executive] have the ultimate authority over Construction Sites and have the ability to close a site if they feel it is a safety hazard. Their primary initiative is the ‘Safe Pass’ – a one day site safety training programme.

Who needs to do Safe Pass awareness training?

Safe Pass is a one-day safety awareness programme aimed at general construction workers, craft workers and “on site” security personnel in the construction industry. The aims of the programme are to:

• raise the standard of safety awareness in the construction industry

• ensure that site personnel after completing the one day awareness programme can make a positive contribution to the prevention of accidents and ill health while working on the site

• maintain a register of personnel who have received training

• provide participants with a FAS Safe Pass registration card, indicating that the holder has attended a formal course in health and safety awareness

Under the Safety Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006 Safe Pass / Safety Awareness Programmes applies to -

(a) craft and general construction workers,

(b) persons undertaking on-site security work, and

(c) persons or classes of persons as may be prescribed by the Minister.

For more information on Irish Site Safety please visit the website of the Health & Safety Authority www.hsa.ie while for more information relating to Irish Construction Insurance please visit the website of Keystone Insurance www.keystone.ie, Ireland’s premier supplier of Construction Insurance

It doesn’t matter whether you live in Del Mar, California, Palmdale, CA, Corona, Escondido, Orange, Fullerton, Costa Mesa, Victorville, Carlsbad, Temecula, Murrieta, Mission Viejo, El Cajon, Vista, Westminster, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Hesperia, Newport Beach, Buena Park, Indio, Coachella, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, La Quinta, San Diego, Orange County, Palm Springs, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Palm Desert, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Riverside, Chula Vista, Irvine, San Bernardino, Huntington Beach, Fontana, Moreno Valley, Oceanside, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, or Garden Grove, you don’t need to be a California mortgage attorney or a CA real estate lawyer to know that it’s next to impossible to sell your house in California and nearly as difficult to obtain a loan to buy another.

After months of investigation, I finally uncovered the person responsible for the Mortgage Crisis that has spread from California to Florida and from there to the rest of the country and now around the world.

Like investigating the cause of a fire, you can usually find the exact place where the fire started and from the evidence that is left, find the person who started it.In this case it wasn’t who you would expect.

It wasn’t someone named Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac who took on huge amounts of mortgage risk because it was pushed into it by Congress. It wasn’t just one bank executive or investment institution. It wasn’t just one congressman, or Secretary of this or that.It was someone who feels really bad about what he did. It was Steve.

Because of attorney confidentiality I’ll not state his last name. But Steve has admitted his fault and has already spoken to the authorities. Actually, the authorities contacted him and Steve is in hiding.

“I feel like a heel,” Steve said. “Everything was going so well in America. Home prices were going up and up. The price of oil was still relatively cheap. I just wanted part of the American dream.”

“So what exactly did you do, Steve?” I asked.

“I fudged,” Steve said.

“You mean you lied?” I asked.

Steve held his head in shame. “When I applied for a home loan I lied about how many times I’d been married.

“I laughed. “Did you lie about anything else?” I asked.

Steve nodded. “My income.”

“How much did you say you were making?” I asked.

“Five million,” Steve said. “A month,”

I must have looked shocked.

“I didn’t know they would believe me,” Steve said.

“How much were you making a month?” I asked.

“I wasn’t working,” Steve said.

“You didn’t just lie, you lied like someone on Wall Street,” I said.

“That’s where I got the idea,” Steve said.

“Didn’t the bank check your finances?” I asked.

Steve shook his head. “When I told them I was buying a 10 million dollar home, you should have seen everyone’s eyes light up with the thought of their commissions and fees from the sale and the loan.”

“I can imagine,” I said. “Did you buy the home?”

Steve nodded. “Got it on sale.”

“You turned it back over to the bank, right?” I asked.

“I wish,” Steve said. “But when it started to go up in value, I borrowed against it and bought five more just like it.”

“Criminey,” I said. “What happened next?”

“I was the toast of the banking world,” Steve said. “What would you do?”

“In hindsight?” I asked. “I would have unloaded them.”

“Not good old me,” Steve said. “The worse the financial condition became, the more the bank needed me so I borrowed some more. The way the bank figured it, I was good for it. They didn’t have any other customers with that much in loans. Who better to give money to?”

“You caused your bank to fail, didn’t you?” I said.

Steve nodded.  “They went under just like the Titanic,” Steve said. “Then their parent banking corporation in Florida flipped over on their back like a dead fish, then the bank in England that bought up all their mortgage backed securities got fried as well.”

“What happened to your mortgages,” I asked.

“Beats me,” Steve said. “Last I heard, three foreign banks and the U.S. Treasury own most of the paper from their various bailouts.”

Today, Steve apparently moves around a lot. Costa Rica one day, Belize another. Steve’s last e-mail said he was writing a book called, “I did it. Blame me.”

I told Steve, not to bother. Even if he was the last card added to a house of cards that our leaders in Washington D.C. put up, right now there’s plenty of blame to go around.

While the goal of a company or firm is sustainability, the goal of the human species is to sustain themselves as well. Sustainability is a state of being that can be maintained indefinitely. Sustainable development, as defined by the United Nations General Assembly, meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations.

Companies prefer not to break even, but sustain themselves with a higher margin of safety. Similarly, we’d like to see human kind sustain themselves for many, many years to come. Unfortunately, we are not leading ourselves towards that path. The declining state of our environment has become a global epidemic, centered on consumer-focused countries like the United States of America. It is essential that we, as educated and responsible citizens, take action now in order to save the sacred place which we thrive upon.

Many people ask “How can I make a difference?” Although there are many simple solutions (consume recycled products, reduce energy use, etc.), environmentalism can even fit into our everyday lives – into the profession of accounting. Environmental accounting has been under discussion since the 1960s, but has expanded greatly in the last three decades. Now that environmentalism is in the public eye, it is more pertinent to the profession than ever.

Environmental accounting is a wonderful opportunity for individuals to pair their interest in the environment with a skill set in accounting. Despite the slowing economy, it is certain the demand for environmental accountants will rise. The demand for these specific professionals, however, is tied to environmental regulations originated in Washington, D.C. With the upcoming presidential election in November 2008, the future for these professionals is not predictable. It is clear, however, that the majority of front-running candidates have proposed actions within their platforms for the environment. Despite the politics of environmental regulation, it is very apparent America has taken an interest in environmental issues.

Although companies do not often recruit for these specific positions, it is something that students may specialize in later on in their career. Large companies, as well as accounting firms, often have environmental accountants on staff. Until this point, there have not been academic programs focusing on environmental accounting, nor a professional certification relating to the field. A great way to start towards this path would be with a college minor in environmental studies. Continuing Professional Education (CPE) courses focusing in this area will also serve accounting professionals well. Communication is a key skill environmental accountants must possess. They must be able to convey their knowledge to scientists, risk managers, public relations professionals, marketing staff and even senior executives.

Not only will environmental accountants serve as a vital part in a company’s social responsibility effort, but they will also be able to cut costs in an environmental friendly way. Companies may perform an environmental audit to determine which legislation is applicable to the company, assess the compliance, and provide environmental solutions. Accountants are able to understand the distribution of costs and use of resources – and can analyze ways companies will be able to lessen their ecological footprint. In this way, environmental accountants can take action for environmentalism on a much bigger scale.

While it is the environmental accountants’ responsibility to adhere to government guidelines, we should not overlook their role in improving environmental conditions. It is pertinent that environmental accountants work with public relation as well as marketing professionals, in order to promote the most eco-friendly products. Now, more than ever, America has begun to realize its’ ecological footprint on the Earth. The marketability of some commercial products depends on its level of environmental friendliness. Using recyclable materials will not only cut costs, but also impress consumers.

In upcoming years, environmental accountants will play a key role in business strategies. Environmental accountants have the power to satisfy management with financial figures, as well the community with social responsibility. These specific professionals will hold the key role in following environmental regulations. With hope, environmental accountants can do their part in moving towards sustainability.

While we may be able to connect our professional lives with the condition of our environment, I urge you to take action individually as well. Every small action has the power to make a difference. You can measure your ecological footprint at www.ecofoot.org. This will give you a greater understanding our impact on the environment, and how sustainable our practices are.