When our safe pass was first introduced here ten years ago I HAD THE SAME OPINION " what a waste of a day and a €150 ,useless I thought,but what was being done was establishing a base for everyone ,remember not everyone has the same level of safety awareness or experience of site work-contracting.
When I had to renew it five years later the course had changed and took 8hr to complete and an hour for the exam and was significantly more difficult,but as safety was being enforced on sites ,inductions for new starters and new sites the general awareness of safety was steadily rising ,now with out a safe pass ticket one won't even be allowed to make a delivery to a site, not to mind work on it ,everyone from office staff to apprentices,to tradespersons ,to management, No safe pass no job period.