The 26th Annual National Irish Safety Organisation / Northern Ireland Safety Group (NISO/NISG) Safety Awards took place on 13 October 2017 at a special ceremony at The Radisson Blu Hotel in Galway. Harry Galvin, NISO President, along with John Thompson, Incoming NISG chair, and Seán Kyne T.D., Minister for Rural Affairs and Natural Resources, presented awards to over 100 organisations from all around the island of Ireland.

We were awarded with the prestigious All Ireland Supreme Safety Award. The Supreme Safety Award is a major achievement and is presented to the organisation which has shown consistently good or continuously improving health and safety performance over a number of years and an outstanding contribution to occupational safety, health and welfare during the previous year. This is a top accolade and we have the distinction of being the first M&E Company to win. This is a major endorsement of our continued commitment to maintaining the highest EHS standards within our client network and workforce and highlights our drive to become industry leaders for outstanding safety and environmental performance.

Among the previous winners of the Supreme Award from the past 26 years are many of our repeat clients including; GE Healthcare, MSD Brinny, PSE Kinsale Energy, Swords Laboratories, Helsinn Briex Pharmaceuticals, Bausch & Lomb Ireland, Merck Sharp & Dohme (Ireland), Aughinish Alumina, Janssen Pharmaceutical, Intel Ireland, Irish Refining and Guinness.

The award was presented to Declan Grady, Health and Safety Manager on behalf of Jones Engineering by John Thompson – Vice Chair Northern Ireland Safety Group, Seán Kyne – Minister for Community Development, Natural Resources and Digital Development and Harry Galvin – NISO President. He was also presented with the Consistent High Achiever Award on behalf of Jones Engineering for achieving a Distinction or Higher Award in each of the last 5 years. To achieve these awards we demonstrated the existence of a proactive health and safety management system with evidence of strong management leadership, of continual improvement, health and safety management system reviews and superior performance by company and subcontractor management and employees.

Safety has always been a Number One Value for us with the aim being Nobody Gets Hurt through our operations. We have strived to develop a safety culture that enhances the health and safety of each employee, a culture where personnel hold safety as a ‘value’ and not just a priority, after all priorities change where values do not.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our employees who continually carry out work on behalf of the Group companies in a safe manner. We would also like to acknowledge in particular those who assisted with the award entries.

The full list of NISO winners is available to view here.