The 36^th All-Ireland Occupational Safety and General Knowledge Quiz semi-finals and finals run jointly by the National Irish Safety Organisation (NISO) and the Northern Ireland Safety Group (NISG) was held this year in the Brandon Hotel, Tralee, Co Kerry, on Saturday, 25th April. The event was a great success with six teams participating in the Novices semi-final and eight teams in the Previous Entrants semi-final. Each team had successfully won through from their Regional Quiz round held earlier. Quiz Masters, Harry Galvin and Michael O'Neill, ably conducted the proceedings. The standard of answering was very high across all teams.  This year’s spectators’ quiz was very favourably received. The semi final results were very close with the top team scoring 133 points followed by three teams on 132 points which resulted in a tie breaker for the remaining two positions. In the finals, the scoring was close for the top three teams in both finals and the winners in each category were:

Previous Entrants Category Winners

1st Place: Endesa Ireland Ltd. (representing the South Eastern Region)

Dan Meaney, John Murphy, Sean Walsh, Feargal Weatherhead

2nd Place: ESB Powergen, North Wall (representing the Eastern Region)

Ronan Barry, Paddy Cooney, Jimmy Sherlock, Tomas Waters

3rd Place: Abbott Ireland Ballytivnan (representing the North West Region)

Stephen Cronin, Mary McNelis, Hugh Mulligan, Helen Nolan

Novice Category Winners

1st Place: Helsinn Chemicals Irl Ltd. (representing the Eastern Region)

Brian Hall, Annette Lane, Mary Lynch, James Oliver

2nd Place: Abbott Diagnostic Finisklin (representing the North Western Region)

Alan Gallagher, Ronan McKiernan, Carol McMahon, Jude Mapp

3rd Place: Cork County Council (representing the Southern Region)

Eileen Coleman, Mark Daly, Niamh Kelly, Shane Kennedy

Addressing the special prize-giving dinner that evening, President Pauric Corrigan pointed to the fantastic commitment demonstrated by the teams participating in the event, as it marked for him the strong health and safety culture present in the sponsoring companies. He particularly thanked the participating companies’ managers for their support and encouragement to their teams. ‘Your excellent standard of answering here today is a sure testament of the strong commitment of each of you to safe and healthy workplaces and I salute you’ concluded Corrigan. Martin O'Halloran, Chief Executive of the Health & Safety Authority echoed these sentiments and added that regular testing of health and safety knowledge and awareness was an excellent way of maintaining good health and safety practices and standards in the workplace. ‘Your excellent standard of answering here today is a sure testament of the strong commitment of each of you to safe and healthy workplaces and I salute you’ concluded Henry. Tom Stevenson, Vice Chairperson of the Northern Ireland Safety Group indicated that next year's Quiz Semi Finals and Finals may be held in Belfast.

Other participating teams were:

Previous Entrants Category Teams

Abbott Diagnostics Longford (representing the Midland Region)

Team members: Seamus Conlon, Tom Joyce, Seamus Loughane, Karen Whitlow

Abbott Ireland Cootehill (representing the North Eastern Region)

Team members: Benny Igoe, Terry Lennon, Noel Quinn, Rose Rogers

Cold Chon (Galway) Ltd. (representing the Western Region)

Team members: Gerard Donoghue, Gerry Duffy, Paul King, Sean Og Leydon

Cork Safety Network (representing the Southern Region)

Team members: Martin Condon, Padraig Costello, Michael Daly, Pat O’Flynn

Nacco Material Handling Group (representing Northern Ireland)

Team members: Ivan Burns, Daniel Frank, Darran Johnston, Michael McCormick

Novice Category Teams

Abbott Diagnostics Longford (representing the Midland Region)

Team members: Tomas Carolan, Patricia Donnelly, Declan Lalor, Eleanor Tuohy

ESB Networks, Rosbrien (representing the Mid Western Region)

Team members: Mike Benson, James Hennessy, Pat McGuane, Eugene McNamara