Photo: National Quality Standard Awards 2025: Credit: TU Dublin Sport

Ireland Active proudly announces that applications for the National Quality Standard (NQS) Awards 2025 are Now Open!

Recognised as the most respected accolades in the leisure, health, and fitness industry in Ireland, the NQS Awards set the benchmark for excellence across the sector.

Facilities are assessed across four key areas: Safety, Hygiene, Human Resources, and Customer Engagement, with awards given at three levels: Outstanding, Exceeded, and Achieved.

Message From Karl Dunne, CEO of Ireland Active

Photo: Karl Dunne, CEO of Ireland Action, at the 2024 Ireland Active Conference & NQS Awards Night.

“The National Quality Standard Awards represent a commitment to excellence across safety, customer care, operations, and staff development. As the benchmark for the leisure, health, and fitness sector in Ireland, it ensures that facilities consistently meet and exceed best practice standards.” – Karl Dunne, CEO of Ireland Active.

What Have Our NQS Recipients Have To Say

Photo: John Windle, Chairperson of Ireland Active, presents the NQS Outstanding Fitness Facility Fitness Award to Gemma Dempsey, General Manager of DCU Sport during the 2024 National Quality Standard Awards ceremony.

“Quality is a core component of operational excellence at DCU Sport. We are committed to ensuring that every member and facility user experiences a safe, clean, and high-standard environment at all times. The audit process involving detailed documentation and site inspections aligns with DCU Sports’ commitment of continuous improvement. Achieving the NQS Award is external recognition of the systems we have in place and the collective effort of our dedicated team, who consistently go above and beyond to deliver exceptional service.” – Gemma Dempsey, General Manager at DCU Sport

Photo: John Windle, Chairperson of Ireland Action, presents the NQS Achieved Facility Fitness Award to Ken Robinson, Managing Director of Space Gyms during the 2024 National Quality Standard Awards ceremony.

“The NQS has many benefits to Space Gyms. It acts as an external validation of our standards that we aspire to every day. It also motivates our team to remain vigilant of standards and safety and as a service to our members it confirms the premium offering they have connected with. It is a fantastic opportunity to recalibrate every year and internally self asses to seek continual improvements.

Our Team are proud of their achievements as it’s a collaborative process to achieve the NQS. It also acts as a strong reference for our current and prospective members to know they are in a gym with high standards in safety, and service.” – Ken Robinson, Managing Director at Space Gyms

Photo: John Windle, Chairperson of Ireland Action, presents the NQS Achieved Facility Hotel Leisure Award to Stephen Riordan, Manager at Killashee Leisure Centre during the 2024 National Quality Standard Awards ceremony.

“Receiving the NQS Award was a really proud moment for us at Killashee Leisure Centre. It felt like a genuine recognition of all the hard work our team puts in every day to keep our standards high and our members happy.

The audit process was actually a great experience, it gave us fresh perspective on how we operate, highlighted what we’re doing well, and helped us spot a few areas we could improve. It definitely pushed us to keep raising the bar.

We’ve had lovely feedback from members since receiving the award, and it’s been great for team morale too. It gave us all a real boost!” – Stephen Riordan, Manager at Killashee Leisure Centre.

Photo: John Windle, Chairperson of Ireland Action, presents the NQS Achieved Leisure Facility Award to Lorraine Higgins, CEO at West Limerick Sports Complex during the 2024 National Quality Standard Awards ceremony.

“West Limerick Sports Complex were thrilled to achieve not only the NQS Award but be announced as the Best Newcomer for 2024! As a not for profit, our whole team strives to provide the best facilities and services to our members and wider community in West Limerick.

The audits carried out were, while at first daunting, turned out to be a great experience as they highlighted, we follow best practice and gave confidence to our team.

This award solidified years of hard work and commitment behind the scenes, external acknowledgement from the leaders in the industry that WLSC is “up there with the best” in the business!

For our Team and Users it was amazing, a real sense of achievement and gave morale a real boost. We are still on a high!”-Lorraine Higgins, CEO at West Limerick Sports Complex

Key Information

Eligibility:

  • Must be a current Ireland Active member
  • The facility must have been operating for at least six months
  • A minimum of 50% of staff must be registered with REPs Ireland
  • Application Deadline: Friday, 30th May 2025 at 5:00 PM


Timeline Highlights:

  • 25th April:  NQS Workshop with New Facilities/Online Applications Open
  • April/End May: Online Application Process
  • 30th May: NQS Applications Close at 5:00 PM
  • May/June/July: Onsite Audits Take Place
  • July/August: Preliminary Results
  • Start of September: Jury Meeting
  • Mid September: Results of NQS
  • End of September: All Appeals Submitted
  • 24th October: Annual Conference/NQS Awards.

Facilities must submit all documentation before the deadline to be eligible for auditing and adjudication.
For any login or registration issues, please contact: nqs@irelandactive.ie

Ready to apply? >START YOUR APPLY HERE<