Irish tourism students won a gold and two silver medals in the Association of European Hotel and Tourism Schools annual competition in Luxembourg last week.

Ciaran Carberry (20) of Trees Road, Green Park, Dublin, a student at Tallaght IT, won the gold medal for the culinary arts section of the competition. Silver medals went to Carrie Mohan (21) from Knockagolis, Co Monaghan, a student at the Tourism College, Killybegs, Co Donegal, for front office-reception skills and to Jeremy Heffernan (21) of Kiltegan Park, Rochestown, Cork, for bartending and cocktail-making. He is a student at Cork IT.

Ireland was represented by eight students altogether and this was the first time an Irish team had taken part in the competition, in which 28 other countries participated. Anne Deary, training adviser with CERT, which organised the Irish team's participation, says the competition was extremely tough and the standard was very high.

Shaun Quinn, CERT's new chief executive, says the students were impressive ambassadors for Irish tourism at a time when our standards have never been higher.