Can you claim for silicosis in Ireland?

You may be able to bring a personal injury claim for silicosis if you were exposed to silica dust at work and your employer failed to take the precautions the law requires. Silicosis is caused by inhaling respirable crystalline silica, the fine dust released when stone, concrete, brick and engineered-stone worktops are cut, ground, drilled or polished. Because that dust is a recognised cause of serious disease, an Irish employer has clear legal duties to control it. Where an employer did not, and a worker developed silicosis as a result, the failure can found a claim in negligence and for breach of statutory duty.

What silicosis is and who is at risk

Silicosis is an incurable scarring of the lungs caused by breathing in respirable crystalline silica over time. The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) describes it as a serious lung disease that can be disabling and, in severe cases, fatal, with dust that is invisible in ordinary light and settles deep in the lungs. Doctors recognise three patterns: chronic silicosis, after roughly ten years or more of lower exposure; accelerated silicosis, after around five to ten years of heavier exposure; and acute silicosis, within a few years of very intense exposure. Silica exposure also raises the risk of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and is associated with tuberculosis and kidney disease.

Symptoms often develop slowly and may not appear until years after exposure. Common signs include a persistent cough, shortness of breath that worsens with exertion, chest tightness and fatigue. Because these overlap with other conditions, silicosis is sometimes misdiagnosed as sarcoidosis, a chest infection, tuberculosis or asthma, which is one reason an accurate occupational history matters.

The workers most at risk cut, shape or finish silica-bearing materials: stonemasons and workers who fabricate and install engineered-stone or natural-stone kitchen worktops, quarry and slate workers, construction and demolition workers cutting or grinding concrete and brick, tunnellers, and foundry workers. The HSA and its Northern Ireland counterpart ran an all-island inspection campaign in construction during 2025 targeting these activities.

The emerging engineered-stone problem

Engineered stone has changed the risk profile of silicosis, because it contains far more silica than most natural stone. Sold as artificial or quartz worktop material, it is made by binding crushed stone with resins and can contain around 90 per cent or more crystalline silica, compared with roughly 30 to 45 per cent in granite and under 10 per cent in marble. When it is cut, ground or polished it can release very high levels of respirable crystalline silica, and cases of accelerated silicosis in relatively young fabrication workers have been reported internationally.

The international response has moved quickly. Australia became the first country to ban the use of engineered stone in July 2024 and extended the ban to imports from January 2025. In May 2026 the British Health and Safety Executive published dedicated guidance and a large inspection programme for engineered-stone fabricators, though it stopped short of a ban. Ireland has not introduced an engineered-stone ban, and this work remains governed by the general workplace safety and carcinogen framework below.

Your employer's duties on silica dust

Irish law treats silica dust generated at work as a carcinogen, which places demanding duties on employers to prevent or minimise exposure. The starting point is the general duty under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 to provide a safe workplace, safe systems of work, and information, training and supervision. Layered on top is the specific regime for hazardous substances set out in the capsule above, under which work that generates respirable crystalline silica dust is treated as a carcinogenic process, with the HSA Code of Practice carrying evidential weight in court.

In practice this means a written risk assessment, then control using a hierarchy that puts elimination and engineering controls ahead of personal protection: water suppression, on-tool or local exhaust ventilation to capture dust at source, and properly fitted respiratory protection where dust cannot be controlled by other means. The employer must keep airborne RCS below the Irish occupational exposure limit of 0.1 mg/m³ averaged over an eight-hour day, provide information and training, and arrange health surveillance such as lung-function testing for workers at risk. Using sand or other material with a high free-silica content as an abrasive in blasting is separately prohibited. A silicosis claim is usually built on the gap between these duties and what actually happened on site.

Proving a silicosis claim

A silicosis claim rests on medical evidence of the disease, evidence of silica exposure at work, and evidence that the employer fell short of its duties. The medical side usually begins with a consultant respiratory physician, who confirms the diagnosis using imaging and lung-function testing and links it to silica exposure while excluding other causes. Chest imaging is commonly classified using the International Labour Organization system for radiographs of pneumoconioses: a reading of category 1/0 or higher is generally taken as radiological evidence of the disease, which is why a properly classified film carries more weight than a symptom account alone.

The exposure and breach evidence connects the illness to a particular employer: your own account of the jobs, tasks and materials involved, employment and tax records, and statements from colleagues. Where records are thin, an occupational-hygiene or engineering expert can reconstruct the likely exposure and address whether reasonable controls such as wet cutting, extraction and suitable masks were available and used at the relevant time, judged against the standards then current.

If you think silica dust at work has affected your health, a few practical steps protect both your health and any future claim:

1. See your GP, explain your work history, and ask for a referral to a respiratory specialist for diagnosis.
2. Tell your current or former employer about your diagnosis and any concerns about dust exposure.
3. Keep a record of where and when you worked with silica-bearing materials, including tasks, employers and dates.
4. Hold on to any documents you have, such as payslips, contracts, training records or occupational-health reports.
5. Take legal advice promptly, because the time limit generally runs from your date of knowledge.

What questions do silicosis claims still raise?

Knowing that silica dust caused an illness, and that an employer should have controlled it, is only the start of a personal injury claim. The harder questions come next: whether you are still in time when the disease surfaced years later, whether there is anyone left to claim against if the employer has gone, and what a claim of this kind is worth. The sections below take each in turn, because they decide whether a well-founded silicosis case can be pursued in practice.

Time limits and the date of knowledge

The general time limit is two years less one day, but for a disease like silicosis it usually runs from your date of knowledge rather than from when you were exposed. The two-year period is set by section 7 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, which reduced the previous three-year period and amended the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991. Under the date-of-knowledge test in the 1991 Act, as amended, time starts when you first knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that you had a significant injury, that it was attributable to your employer's act or omission, and the identity of that employer. For silicosis this is often the date a doctor diagnoses the disease and links it to your work. Because the illness can surface years after exposure ends, an old exposure does not automatically put you out of time.

Most work-related silicosis claims begin with an application to the Injuries Resolution Board, and the limitation clock pauses while the Board assesses the claim. Because the date of knowledge can be difficult to pin down, and because different rules apply to minors and to fatal cases, take advice as soon as you suspect a link between your illness and your work. Our guide to time limits for personal injury claims in Ireland explains the test in more detail.

If your employer has stopped trading

A claim may still be possible even if the employer you worked for years ago has closed, been struck off or been dissolved. Businesses in stone, construction and quarrying often change hands or wind up, but the employer's liability insurance in place at the time of your exposure will frequently still respond to a long-latency disease claim. A dissolved company can sometimes be restored to the register so that proceedings can be issued and directed to its insurer.

In practice, where a former employer no longer trades, an Injuries Resolution Board application will often name that employer's insurer as the respondent, and an insurer may sometimes approach you directly with an offer, which is a point at which advice is worth taking. There may also be more than one defendant, where several employers exposed you over the years or a manufacturer or supplier of a high-silica product bears responsibility. We explain the options in our guide to claiming against an insolvent or dissolved company. Where no insurer and no solvent defendant can be found, recovery may not be possible.

Compensation for silicosis

Compensation in a silicosis claim reflects both the harm to your health and the financial losses the illness causes. Damages for the injury itself recognise the pain, disability and reduced quality of life caused by a progressive lung condition, and depend heavily on severity, on how far the disease has advanced, and on its effect on your life and life expectancy. This page does not quote figures, because the right valuation depends on medical evidence specific to your case, assessed against the framework the courts apply.

Alongside that, you can claim financial losses: past and future loss of earnings where the illness affects your ability to work, medical and rehabilitation costs, care and assistance, and home adaptations or equipment. Where a condition is severe and progressive, future losses can be substantial and may be met by a lump sum or, in some cases, by periodic payments. Where silicosis has been fatal, a deceased worker's dependants may bring a claim under our guide to fatal injury claims.

One point matters especially for a progressive disease like silicosis: in Ireland, damages are assessed once and for all. Unlike England and Wales, Irish law has no provisional damages mechanism that lets you return to court for more if your condition later deteriorates beyond the prognosis at settlement. Your award is final. That makes the timing of your claim and the quality of your medical prognosis decisive, because the settlement has to account for how the disease is expected to progress. It is a reason not to settle before your condition and outlook are properly understood.

How Gary Matthews Solicitors can help

Silicosis claims combine medical complexity with exposure that can stretch back many years. We can help you obtain the right respiratory and occupational-hygiene evidence, trace former employers and their insurers, and bring your claim through the Injuries Resolution Board and, where necessary, the courts. If you have been diagnosed with silicosis, or told your lung disease may be linked to silica dust at work, you are welcome to contact us to discuss your situation.

Frequently asked questions