Accident and incident reporting to the HSA for Irish pubs, restaurants and hotels

A kitchen porter slips on a wet floor, a glass collector cuts a hand on a broken pint glass, a customer misses a step on the way to the toilets. Hospitality has a steady trickle of accidents, and most never need to go further than your own log. Some must be reported to the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), and missing those is an offence.

This guide explains what the HSA requires, with the rules as of October 2026, and gives you an incident log you can copy.

The short answer

The rules come from the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Reporting of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences) Regulations 2016 (S.I. No. 370 of 2016). Failing to report an accident or dangerous occurrence they cover is an offence.

The 3-day rule for employees

An accident is reportable when the injury leaves an employee unable to carry out their normal work duties for more than 3 consecutive days, excluding the day of the accident. The HSA's guidance spells out two points:

• Count weekends and non-working days. If a part-time chef is hurt on a Thursday and isn't fit for their normal duties until the following Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday all count, even if they weren't rostered.
• Day 0 doesn't count. The day of the accident is day 0. If the person still can't do their normal work on day 4, it's reportable.

"Normal work" matters. If a bartender with a sprained wrist comes in but can only work the door for a week, they're not doing their normal duties, and the clock keeps running.

What counts as an accident

The HSA describes an accident as an unplanned event resulting in death or injury, such as a severe sprain or strain (manual handling injuries included), a laceration, a broken bone, concussion or unconsciousness. In a hospitality setting, the HSA's Safe Hospitality guidance points to the usual suspects: slips, trips and falls, cuts, burns and scalds, manual handling of kegs and stock, falling objects and the cellar hatch.

Mental injury from an assault

The HSA says directly caused mental injuries, such as shock or fright from an assault, are reportable by the employer where they leave the employee unable to do their normal work for more than 3 consecutive days, excluding the day of the accident. For late-night bars and door staff, that's worth knowing.

What isn't reportable under these rules

Diseases, occupational illnesses and impairments of mental condition (other than injury directly caused by an accident, as above) aren't reportable under these Regulations. Some diseases are reportable under other law, and the HSA's information sheet lists them.

Customers and other members of the public

For people who aren't your employees and aren't at work, the test is different. The employer at the workplace must report when the person:

• dies from an accident caused by a work activity at your workplace, or
• is injured by your work activity and has to be taken from the location of the accident to receive medical treatment in a hospital or medical facility.

So a customer who slips on a floor that's just been mopped and is taken to hospital is likely reportable. A customer who trips, brushes themselves off and stays for dinner isn't, but it still goes in your log.

Dangerous occurrences

Some events must be reported even if nobody is hurt. The HSA describes a dangerous occurrence as something arising from work activities that causes or results in, among other things, the collapse, failure, explosion or malfunction of work equipment, the collapse of part of a building, the uncontrolled release or ignition of a substance, or a fire involving any substance. The full list is in Appendix 1 of the HSA's guidance on the 2016 Regulations. A gas leak in the cellar or a fryer fire is worth checking against it.

How to report

You can report in two ways:

1. Online through the HSA's online accident reporting system (webapps.hsa.ie). Dangerous occurrences have their own form on the HSA website.
2. On paper, using the IR1 form, sent to the HSA Contact Centre. You can ask for a hard copy by email or on 0818 289 389.

Include the address where the accident happened if it's different from the employer's address, which matters for groups with more than one venue.

Deadlines

• Fatal accident: tell the HSA (0818 289 389) or the Gardaí (999 or 112) immediately, then submit the formal report within five working days.
• Non-fatal accident or dangerous occurrence: report within ten working days of the event.

Because the 3-day rule can only be known after day 3, decide on day 4 and report within the ten working days from the accident.

Keep a record of everything

The HSA says to keep a record of all accidents and dangerous occurrences for ten years from the date of each incident, and that recording near misses is good practice even though they aren't reportable. A near miss you've written down, like a wet floor that nearly caused a fall, is the evidence that you spotted a hazard and dealt with it.

Accident records also feed your safety statement: the HSA's guidance on risk assessments says they should be reviewed after an incident, including a near miss. See safety statements and risk assessments.

The HSA publishes its own accident or incident record form (Tool 5) if you want a paper version.

An incident log you can copy

Fill it in on the day. Memories fade fast after a Saturday night, and a log written a week later is worth far less.

Common mistakes

• Counting only rostered days. The HSA counts weekends and non-working days.
• Forgetting light duties. Someone back but unable to do their normal job is still off normal work.
• Not logging customer falls because nobody went to hospital. Log them all.
• Reporting late. Ten working days goes quickly when the manager on duty didn't pass it on.
• No follow-up. If the same step trips three people, the record shows you knew.

How ShiftComplete helps

ShiftComplete makes the log the easy bit. Staff log an incident or maintenance issue in seconds from a phone or the tablet behind the bar, with a photo, a severity and a status (open or resolved), and resolution notes when it's dealt with. Open incidents show on the dashboard, the weekly report counts them, and the audit log records who did what and when, with a CSV export. Risk assessments can be created, kept and printed in the same app, so updating one after an incident is a few taps away.

ShiftComplete doesn't report to the HSA for you; that's your duty as the employer. It's €1.99 per active staff member per month, free for 60 days with no card and no contract.