Smith picks up department award

NORMALLY it is the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food who presents certificates at functions country wide.

But the current Minister, Brendan Smith, found himself at the receiving end of a presentation earlier this week.

He was presented with a certificate of registration to the ISO 9001 quality management standard, awarded by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI).

The certificate was in relation to the work of the input section and the cash office of the department’s accounts division in Cavan.

Minister Smith said the award marks a significant achievement for the staff who carry out this important work in the department.

He congratulated all who played a part in the certification success and noted that this was the fourth occasion that the ISO 9001 standard had been awarded to an office of the department.

Mr Smith said he was aware of the effort involved in achieving ISO certification, which is recognised worldwide, and said it was a testament to the standards of excellence which must be achieved, in order to qualify for it.

The minister said the certificate demonstrated the department’s strong commitment to providing the highest quality in the delivery of services to all its customers, in accordance with its commitments under its customer service action plan.

He said that he looked forward to seeing many other areas of the department take up this challenge over the coming years with other ISO projects in the initial stage of implementation.