Awardees, Sponsors, Ladies & Gentlemen; I would like to welcome you all here this evening to our Annual Honours and Awards Ceremony which is conducted to acknowledge and encourage excellence for those training for careers in Instrumentation, Systems and Automation and also to express our thanks and recognition to those who have led the way in the pursuit of their careers in those fields.

Irish industry has been a bedrock sponsor of ISA Ireland Section activities throughout the past thirty years of our existence. We are delighted that this support has continued for this ceremony and that each sponsor is represented here this evening clearly demonstrating industry awareness and support for promoting and awarding excellence.

Current thinking is that Education & Training is a Cradle to Grave concept and one which ISA embraces from its founding ethos. Access to education is not freely available across the whole of this world. Therefore one cannot over emphasise the value of education and on which I truly believe has always rested the future of mankind. Being educated places a large responsibility on one to pass on the knowledge gleaned to others during our life journey. However the full appreciation of this gift only becomes more apparent towards the end of ones life. In that process the role of educator oscillates between our parents, school teachers, sporting and social leaders, college lecturers and work place mentors to varying degrees as we evolve through life with the resulting impression that we are at once and always both educator and student.

I am honoured to be here in my capacity as President of ISA Ireland Section and to present the awards which represent a tremendous achievement for the recipients and especially to be so honoured in the presence of their mentors and their peers. This year we have three awards, two of which have been nominated by Third Level institutions and one from the membership of our Section. Therefore I would like to specifically welcome the award recipients and their families. (see rh column)

To conclude I would like to leave you with a thought - "Only the educated are free" Epictetus, Discourses Roman (Greek-born) slave & Stoic philosopher (55-135 AD)

Thank you all for attending and supporting this auspicious function. I hope you all have a very relaxed and enjoyable evening as we celebrate excellence in our industry.

Sponsors and Awardees (Top Row L to R) Tony Mahon (DPS), Brendan Keohane (Honours Degree Award - Ger Dullea), Declan Lordan, Dr. Liam McDonnell (CIT), Dave O'Brien, Eamon Creech (Janssen), Glenn Buckley (Degree Award), Billy Walsh, (Bottom Row L to R) Bob Hutchinson (Pioneer Award), Mick Meade, Brian Nolan.