Excellence Ireland Quality Association

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EIQA - FAQ's

Excellence Ireland Quality Association’s
Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about the EIQA & the Q Mark

The Q Mark is a business excellence standard that reviews all aspects of a company’s performance and commitment to continuous improvement on an annual basis

  • The Q Mark has a proven track record that proves it can:
  • Increase your revenue
  • Increase your turnover
  • Increase your customer base
  • Increase your profit margins
  • Increase staff output rates
  • Decrease staff absenteeism
  • Decrease staff turnover
  • Improve your company’s processes and procedures
  • Improve your business efficiency

The Q Mark ensures that you are fully conversant and compliant with all relevant legislative and regulatory controls, and gives your team a framework which encourages them to operate to the highest operational standards.

The Q Mark identifies what is working for you and what’s not working for you, at ALL levels within your business.

The Q Mark gives you competitive advantage by demonstrating your organisation’s commitment to the highest standards of quality and excellence by using distinctive certification and marketing material based on the most widely used framework in Ireland.

The Q Mark enhances your opportunity at tender because you can demonstrate that your quality management system operates to the highest level.

The Q Mark gives you the opportunity to review 100% of your business processes and procedures 100% of the time.

Every company that wants to inspect and improve upon on all aspects of their business, irrespective of whether they are involved in production or service delivery, AND wants their customers, peer groups and the consumer to know that they are operating to the highest standard of quality & excellence.

****Online Membership as 1st option?****

Complete this on-line booking form or contact us

Tel: 01 660 4100

Email: info@eiqa.ie

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You can spend as much or as little time as you need to prepare for your audit or assessment. The process can take from 6 weeks to 6 months – you decide!

All auditors have a relevant 3rd level degree, lead auditor certification and wide experience in industry. EIQA have both auditor and assessor employees, and a full panel of approved external  auditors.

Yes, there is an appeals procedure. This procedure is in place for any company that feels a recommendation by an auditor is unjustified or unreasonable. All appeals must be submitted to the EIQA operations department in writing.

  • The company sends in a written representation to the EIQA operations department specifying their reasons for appealing the auditor’s decision.
  • EIQA will liaise with the auditor to investigate and gather further information on the detail behind the recommendation or findings.
  • The appellant company can provide documentation to support an appeal.

Once you have successfully completed your audit and have been awarded Q Mark certification, you can use the relevant Q Mark logo on your company headed notepaper, business cards, and on all of your marketing materials.

Q Mark logo guidelines, produced by EIQA, (Excellence Ireland Quality Association – Guardians of The Q Mark) will be provided and must be adhered to.

Once you have successfully completed your audit and have been awarded Q Mark certification, you can use the relevant Q Mark logo on your company’s corporate fleet of van. You can also use the logo on your company’s headed notepaper, business cards, and on all of your marketing materials. Q Mark logo guidelines, produced by EIQA, (Excellence Ireland Quality Association – Guardians of The Q Mark) will be provided and must be adhered to.

All companies who have been audited and awarded Q Mark certification may use the logo for the duration of time specified on their current certification.

Yes, you can advertise your success in achieving Q Mark certification. This is an excellent way of demonstrating to ALL of your stakeholders that you are committed to continuous business improvement through the use of the Q Mark framework.
You should contact the FSAI (Food Standards Agency Ireland) they operate an advice line on 1890 33 66 77. This is staffed by trained advisors and food scientists and is open Monday to Friday between the hours of 09:00 – 17:00.
If you have concerns about hygiene standards within a store you should make the store owner or manager aware of your concerns. You can also contact the FSAI (Food Standards Agency Ireland) they operate an advice line on 1890 33 66 77. This is staffed by trained advisors and food scientists and is open Monday to Friday between the hours of 09:00 – 17:00.
Yes, the Q Mark certification is withdrawn if a company fails their audit and is deemed ‘not approved’.
An ‘unannounced’ audit means that the audit can take place at any time that your premises are open for business, including evenings, weekends and bank holidays. Unannounced audits are only applicable to companies registered on The Q Mark for Hygiene & Food Safety programme only.
Yes, EIQA, offers a range of consultancy services to support companies. Full details can be obtained on request
The Q Mark standard is provided to companies who register with EIQA and pay the appropriate fee. Further details are available on request

Everything you need to know about the Q Mark training courses

To book a training course
Contact us 

Tel: 01 660 4100

 

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Courses generally run from 9.00am to 5.00pm. However some of our courses will run longer. All relevant course times are included on the ‘Receipt of Booking’ email

A substitution can be made up until the day of the course.

Where a course has specific entry requirements, the substitute will need to be approved.

If you need to cancel a booking, please call a member of The Q Mark team on 01 6604100 with the details of your booking.

Please keep the following EIQA Terms and Conditions in mind:

Course Cancellations

Notice outside 15 working days will incur no penalty

Notice of 10 to 15 working days will incur a 50% fee

Notice within 10 working days will incur a 100% fee

Course Postponement

Notice outside 15 working days will incur no penalty

Notice of 10 to 15 working days will incur a 25% fee

Notice within 10 working days will incur a 100% fee

All delegates with full attendance will receive an EIQA Certificate of Attendance on non-accredited courses.

Full payment must be made at least two weeks prior to course commencement.

EIQA reserves the right to cancel a course should there be insufficient demand. In the event that you have paid for a course which is subsequently cancelled a full refund will be given or your payment can be transferred to another EIQA training course.
All EIQA training courses can be held on an in-house basis offering substantial cost reductions to participating companies. For details please contact us


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