Written answer
State Bodies
INAB accredits conformity-assessment bodies under ISO/IEC 17065, with 25 accredited and eight applicants, but none yet for Regulation 2024/370.
457. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the role of the Irish National Accreditation Board in accrediting conformity-assessment bodies under Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/370; whether INAB has established the required accreditation programme under ISO/IEC 17065; the date on which applications were opened; the number of applications received, assessments completed and accreditations granted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [64658/26]
Comment on this
The Irish National Accreditation Board (INAB) is the national body with responsibility for accreditation in Ireland. It provides accreditation in accordance with the relevant International Organisation for Standardisation ISO 17000 series of standards.
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/370 of the European Parliament and of the Council lays down conformity assessment procedures for products that come into contact with water intended for human consumption and the rules for the designation of Conformity Assessment Bodies involved in those procedures stipulates that ‘a conformity assessment body shall be accredited by a national accreditation body in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 765/2008. The accreditation shall be based on international standard EN ISO/IEC 17065:2012’. INAB offers certification bodies accreditation to the international standard EN ISO/IEC 17065:2012 ‘Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services.’
INAB currently has 25 Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) accredited for this standard, with 8 applicants in the system. Year to date there have been 71 assessments completed, the majority of which are carried out on site.
In 2018, a new customer records management system was introduced in INAB, the table below identifies the number of CABs and assessments recorded for each of the years 2018 – 2025 as follows:
Note: The vast majority (90% plus) of assessments are carried out onsite.
The current version of ISO 17065 was issued in 2012; INAB has been providing accreditation to this standard since 2002.
INAB has not awarded accreditation to ISO 17065:2012 for the activity related to EU Regulation 2024/370 and there are no applicants currently in the system.