Will Enniscorthy Golf Club get the "seal of approval" from Fáilte Ireland?

Fáilte Ireland is pleased to launch the first Minimum Standards Guidelines for golf courses in Ireland. The introduction of these guidelines is a great opportunity for Ireland to become the first country to undertake a nationwide scheme of this type for golf courses and our aim is to have as many golf properties as possible assessed under these new standards by spring 2010. PMPGenesis are working with the Fáilte Ireland Industry Standards and Quality Team to carry out the Golf Minimum Standards Assessments. The benefits of inclusion in this quality assurance scheme are:
Participation in the first official nationwide quality assurance system for golf that will inform and assure customers of the quality they can expect
· Eligibility to market your property as "Approved to Fáilte Ireland Standards"
· Increased visibility by promotion of the golf course on www.discoverireland.ie & www.discoverireland.com , the online sites for both domestic and overseas consumers; and the tourism golf websites, www.discoverireland.ie/golf & www.discoverireland.com/golf
· Invitation to participate in Fáilte Ireland promotional Marketing activities, e.g. National Newspaper, Radio, TV, on-line and trade & consumer shows
· Support through Fáilte Ireland enterprise development initiatives
There is a small fee for the initial assessment and visit and a smaller fee each year for continuing accreditation and auditing.

Unfortunately Enniscorthy will miss out on the first round of assessments currently taking place but it is hoped that we will run with the scheme in Spring. Though the club can tick the boxes on many of the minimum standards listed in the document issued, it feels that more time is required to ensure that all, not just some, can be better evaluated to ensure compliance. This initiative taken by Fáilte Ireland will raise the bar for golf clubs to meet standards in customer care and satisfaction. In many areas of employment such as manufacturing , hotels and businesses standards are intrinsic and most companies have International Standards accreditation and are audited yearly by independent assessors with a major audit usually every three years. Fear of losing this quality accreditation is a motivator to maintain standards. Receiving this accreditation has the potential of placing our club at the top of the tourist rankings abroad and increased visitor through-put. There are three assessment criterion; Pass, Pass with Conditions and Fail. Fail is not in our constitution!