This year's Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award is expected to attract up to 150 entries.

The 2004 competition, supported by The Irish Times and RTÉ, launches today, seeking nominations from both the Republic and the North.

Mr Enda Kelly, the Ernst & Young partner in charge of the prestigious awards programme, said he expected between 125 and 150 nominations. Mr Kelly said the firm was hopeful of very high quality entries.

The nomination period will run until April 9th, which is Good Friday.

The competition will begin in earnest the following month, when this year's judging panel will meet and review the entries.

The judges will then have to whittle this list down to 24 finalists. These will be made up of eight nominees from each of the following three categories: Emerging Entrepreneur, Industry Entrepreneur, and Internationally Traded Services Entrepreneur.

The winner of the overall award will be drawn from the three category winners.

The overall winner and the three category winners will be announced at a ceremony in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, on September 23rd.

This year's judging panel is once again chaired by the winner of the inaugural award in 1998, telecoms entrepreneur Mr Denis O'Brien.

He will be joined by last year's overall winner, Mr Liam Shanahan of Shanahan Engineering, and the 2003 Industry Entrepreneur of the Year winner, Mr Gerard McCaughey of Century Homes.

There are three other previous winners on the panel: Mr Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Aer Arann), Mr Pat McDonagh (Riverdeep) and Mr Brian Long (Seers Partners).

The remaining judges on the panel include: Ms Angela Kennedy (Megazyme International), Mr Pat Maher (Enterprise Ireland), Ms Mary Martin (AGI Therapeutics) and Mr Kevin Thompstone (Shannon Development).