News
A Day in the Life of: Martin Denny, Managing Director, Safety-Link Consulting
Published in The Belfast Newsletter today December 15, 2011
From peacekeeping in Lebanon to advising firms across the island on safety, Monaghan man Martin Denny is putting his hard learned expertise to good use. He has said that even saving one life with his safety advice means he is doing his job to the best of his ability.
From Castleblayney just across the border in Co. Monaghan, Martin had to leave school at just 14 after his father died, starting work very young in a furniture factory. "I worked there for a few years and moved between a few different jobs until I ended up joining the Army in 1983 and trained in the military police collage in 1986," he said.
"I stayed in the military police for 11 years and completed a total of 14 years in the army."
Martin served both in Ireland and overseas in Lebanon and Israel. "My service entailed law enforcement and crime scene investigations - I took a specialist course in scene of crimes investigation - in Ireland and with the United Nations Military police in Lebanon and Israel," he said.
"I also worked in government buildings and in Mountjoy Prison during the prison strike. During my time in the Military police I was very heavily involved in road and transport safety, which was something I took a very keen interest in. "So on leaving the army in 1997 I got a job with a transport company as transport manager and later on became its Transport and Safety Manager."
However then Martin decided to go back to education in 2003 and obtained the equivalent of the leaving cert through the Access to third level course. "On successful completion of this I applied and got my place in UCD to complete a course on Safety Health & Welfare at Work," he said.
Martin has now been working for himself with his company Safety-Link Consulting for seven and a half years. "I work on average about ten hours each day," he said. "I carry out site safety management with ongoing risk assessment and reporting.
Martin said in his line of work, no two days are ever the same. "That is what I love about the job," he said.
"My day can be anything for carrying out an accident investigation to doing a fire drill, site induction for new employees, site audits, to just talking to people about Health and Safety and keeping it at the top of the agenda which isn't easy sometimes."
Martin says he finds the work rewarding. "Ensuring that everyone works safety and stays safe and who ever goes to work in the morning goes back home the same way to their loved ones," he said.
"If I save one life in my whole safety career I will have done my job to the best of my ability. Bottom line is I must make sure they have a safe place of work, safe system of work, safe plant and equipment and are safe and competent to do the job."
Martin said a good knowledge of the law and excellent communication skills are vital for the work. He advised students interested in the sector to get plenty of life experience as well as their Health and Safety qualification because "in this job experience and knowledge are every much if not more important than training".
Adapting his expertise to the 21st century, Martin has teamed up with US mobile applications (apps) specialist Canvas to provide safety apps for companies and organisations on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as across the globe.
The app can be downloaded to a person's smartphone and Martin says it will allow for more efficient and cost effective health and safety routine tasks to be performed.
"Automated paper-based safety audits, inspections, assessments and reports can now be filled out on any Smartphone or Tablet including iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry and Windows enabled mobile devices," he said.
"Health and Safety is a challenging environment and complying with legislation is critical. The allocation of revenue towards health and safety compliance can be a difficult choice for management, especially in these challenging times.
Visit the Safety-Link and Canvas app store at www.gocanvas.com/safety-linkconsulting