Electrical safety socket plugs should be removed from Mid Ulster homes and health care settings

The safety covers, which are sold by many high street stores, have been linked to a number of problems, including damaging the socket and risking fire or electrocution.

The warning from the Northern Ireland Department of Health, which was distributed through the Southern Trust, stated that in certain circumstances the use of plastic 13A electrical socket inserts, which are sold as safety devices, can overcome the safety features designed into socket outlets. It went on to recommend that any such devices should be removed. Sinn Fein’s Dominic Molloy called on the advice to be made widely known. He warned that many local child minders as well as ordinary householders had installed the devices in the mistaken belief that they made electrical sockets safe.