Who audits the auditors?

Group Internal Audit (GIA) underwent a full recertification audit to the ISO 9001:2000 standard in January 2006. The audit, carried out over two days by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), resulted in registration for another three years subject to periodic surveillance audits by NSAI.

During the course of the audit, NSAI met with Chris McElhinney (Group Internal Auditor), Peter Brady (Management Representative for ISO 9001), Kevin Young (outgoing Quality Coordinator), Aoife Slattery (incoming Quality Coordinator) and various other GIA staff.

ISO 9000 is an internationally recognised standard for quality management. GIA first received ISO 9000 certification in 1994, and has demonstrated quality through the years by providing a professional service and by delivering audit reports of a consistently high standard.

The most recent version of ISO 9000 has a very strong emphasis on customer focus and on taking a process approach to all areas of activity. GIA's ISO 9001:2000 certification provides objective external reassurance that the unit is focused on meeting the needs of the Board, the Audit Committee and individual business units in a consistent and systematic manner.

ISO 9001:2000 also emphasises the need for continual improvement, which GIA pursues through measuring performance, setting objectives and targets, and reviewing results on an ongoing basis.

During 2006 a number of initiatives have been undertaken to further improve GIA's quality management system (QMS):

• External ISO 9001:2000 training to all GIA management and staff
• Training of a new Quality Coordinator
• A comprehensive internal review of the QMS with a focus on aligning the system with the recent GIA Strategic Review and on further leveraging the potential benefits of the QMS
• Review of the Galileo system, which GIA uses to manage and track audits in a consistent and systematic manner, to ensure that the benefits of this system are fully utilised.