Hi David, 

The date for the removal of signage is 1^st January 2011.  The Safety, Health & Welfare (Sign) Regulations 2007 part of the General Application Regulations brings into Irish law a European directive to standardise safety signs throughout the European Union. To overcome language barriers, meanings of signs are not conveyed by words but by other characteristics. The regulations set out minimum requirements for the provision of safety signs at work. 

The rules oblige employers to provide safety signs anywhere in the workplace where other methods, properly considered, cannot deal satisfactorily with the risks. 

Beware that safety signs are not a substitute for other methods of controlling a risk; they are to be used to supplement or reinforce other measures, such as engineering controls and safe systems of work, to help reduce risk further. 

The signs may be given by well lit signboards, labels or illuminated panels, sound, hand signal, verbal communication or any effective combination of these. 

Some signs may prohibit dangerous behaviour, warn about a specific hazard or provide a mandatory instruction. These signs have to be sited wherever the information needs to be communicated to best effect.  Generally siting of these signs will be at the approach to, and/or in the immediate vicinity of, the potential danger.

Paul.