Five ŠKODA employees from across Ireland have been selected to represent Ireland at the international finals of the ŠKODA Challenge in Budapest this May.

Having battled it out at the Irish National final earlier this month, Ireland will be represented by Paul Bruton, Brian O'Mahony and Martin Healy, all from Cork, along with Darragh Smith from Cavan and Paul Egan from Naas. Team ŠKODA Ireland will compete against 35 countries at the International Finals, which are in their seventh year. 

The ŠKODA Challenge has become a prestigious benchmark for measuring the qualities of the best employees in the global ŠKODA network and Ireland will be represented in five different categories: Parts & Accessory Sales Person; Service Advisor; Service Technician; Sales Consultant and Diagnostic Technician.

Paul Bruton is a Diagnostic Technician with over 22 years' experience, all of which have been spent with Noel Deasy ŠKODA in Cork. This is the second year that Paul has competed, having placed second in his category last year.

Brian O'Mahony of Finbarr Galvins ŠKODA in Bandon has been successful in his first time participating in the competition, winning the Service Technician category. Brian started work as a technician in 2001 before joining Finbarr Galvins in 2010.

Martin Healy works as Service Manager also in Noel Deasy ŠKODA in Blackpool, Cork. Martin has been with Noel Deasy Cars since March 2003, having studied automobile engineering in CIT.

Parts Advisor, Darragh Smith started in the motor trade with no previous experience in Brady's ŠKODA Cavan four years ago, training as apprentice technician before moving to the Parts Department in September 2016.

This is the first year that a Sales Consultant category has been included in the national final and Paul Egan from Sheehy Motors ŠKODA is the inaugural winner. Paul who has a background in Real Estate and Media Sales joined the ŠKODA brand in Sheehy Motors Naas four years ago.

Commenting on the results of the ŠKODA Challenge, David Rave, Head of Aftersales at ŠKODA Ireland, said: "We are delighted to announce the official line-up for Team ŠKODA Ireland that will be going forward to represent the country at the international ŠKODA Challenge finals in Budapest in May. Paul, Brian, Martin, Darragh and Paul are extremely accomplished professionals in their fields and we wish them the very best of luck in the finals. We have high hopes that Team ŠKODA Ireland can claim the number one spot in 2017."