Address by Mr Noel Treacy, T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce, at the presentation of ISO 9002 Certification to Mason Technologies on 8 July 1999 at 1pm

I am delighted to be invited here today to present ISO 9002 certification to Mason Technology. It is wonderful to see such vibrancy in an organisation just shy of its 220th birthday. Since its inception it has been managed by successive generations of the Mason Family and is subsequently one of the oldest surviving family owned businesses in Dublin. I think that today's presentation of ISO certification demonstrates triumphantly that tradition can happily co-exist with the most forward-looking and innovative of business outlooks.

But was there ever a tension between the two? I think it is worthwhile casting our minds back two hundred and nineteen years to when the first Mason business was founded. Dublin in 1780 was a thriving port and the second city in the English speaking world. At that time this city was also in the grip of an economic boom and an unprecedented building craze.

Under the orders of the Wide Street Commissioners the map of the city was torn-up and re-drawn. Narrow streets made way for formal squares, public gardens and boulevards. Architects visited Dublin to marvel at such new projects as James Gandon's Four Courts and Customs House and William Chamber's grand classical façade for Trinity College. It was the Age of Enlightenment and these new developments in Dublin embodied the crucial values of that time- confidence and optimism. When Seacome Mason opened an optician's premises at number 8 Arran Quay selling microscopes - a Dutch innovation that had already transformed the study of science - he was making a vital contribution to the inquisitive spirit of that age.

This pioneering spirit was not lost over the following centuries. Seacome's son, Thomas Mason gave his name to Mason's Hygrometer, now known rather more prosaically as the Wet and Dry Bulb Thermometer. This was invented by Professor Apjohn of the Royal College of Surgeons and sold from a workshop in Harold's Cross throughout the world.

Mason Technology was also the first company in Ireland to introduce Laboratory Balances using the substitution weighing principle, the first atomic absorption Spectro-Photometer and the first semi-automated Blood Gas Analyser.

Two hundred and twenty years after the establishment of Seacome Mason's original business and Dublin is booming once again. This time, fortunately the benefits are more evenly shared across the country - but some of the factors that informed the original boomtown remain the same. Yet again it is our willingness to engage with scientific advances and our enthusiastic adoption of international best-practice that propels our country forward. And yet again Mason Technology is at the forefront of that drive.

From a purpose built site in Greenville Hall, the company, which now employs 67 people, supplies the worlds leading brands in Chromatography, Environmental Monitoring, Spectroscopy, Vacuum Systems, Microscopy and Laboratory and Industrial Weighing Equipment to Ireland's latest generation of researchers.

The values of accuracy and quality so highly prized in the equipment supplied by Mason Technology to Irish scientists over the years are now equally valued in the sphere of management. Nowhere is this tendency more evident than in the rise of the ISO 9000 series of standards.

ISO 9000 is the most successful international standard ever produced and is currently in use in over 70 countries worldwide.

The "family" of standards known collectively as the ISO 9000 series was developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and first published in 1987. In the same year they were adopted by the European Standards Body, CEN, as European Standards and subsequently adopted by Member States.

Applying an ISO 9000 System for Quality Management within an organisation results in significant benefits in many areas including:

Management effectiveness through structured, organised and defined authorities, responsibilities and reporting structures; Cost reduction through the identification and elimination of potential system deficiencies and product failures; Increased marketability through the identification of a registered company with a quality philosophy and international standard; and Customer satisfaction through the receipt of enhanced service or product quality levels.

As ISO 9000 is a harmonised European and international standard, certification to the standard also opens up international markets to companies where previously technical trade barriers may have been an impediment.

Mason Technologies has achieved certification to the ISO 9002 standard. This is a Quality System Model for Quality Assurance in Production, Installation and Servicing, where the quality of the product/service can be assured by adequate control during all stages of production, test, installation and servicing. I would like to pay tribute to everyone at Mason for achieving this very high standard - I know this involves a dedicated effort from every member of staff.

And now it only remains for me to present Mason Technology with its ISO 9002 certification and to wish the company another brace of successful centuries serving the Irish scientific community.