Born and now living in Donegal.

Graduated from U.C.D . with a B.Soc.Sci 1986 and immediately embarked on a political career following her father’s death in 1986,.

Co-opted to Donegal County council in October 1986 and elected to Dail Eireann in 1987.

Minister for State at the Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht 2001-2002.

Minister for Social Welfare 2002-2004. Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries 2004-2008.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment 2008-2010.

Minister for Education and Skills 2010-2011.

Tánaiste 2008-2011.

In 2016 she set up her own consultancy business.

She is presently National Chairperson of the Local Link Network, a Director of SITT , Killybegs and a Board member of the British Irish Alliance.

She is also involved in many charitable organisations and the G.A.A.

Minister McConalogue was appointed as Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine on 2 September 2020.

He was born in October 1977 and is from Gleneely in Co Donegal. From a farming background, he was educated at Carndonagh Community School before going on to study at UCD where he studied Economics, Politics & History. He first became involved in politics while attending UCD.

After working in Fianna Fáil Headquarters for a number of years, as well as working abroad in Australia, Minister McConalogue returned home to work on the family farm before being elected as a Donegal County Councillor in 2009. In 2011, Charlie was elected TD for Donegal North East.

Minister McConalogue was appointed previously as Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality with responsibility for Law Reform and prior to that, he held the positions of Fianna Fáil spokesperson for Children, Education and Skills, and Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Martin Heydon T.D. is Minister of State with special responsibility for Research and Development, Farm Safety and New Market Development at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. He was appointed to this role in July 2020. He is a T.D. for the Kildare South constituency, first elected in 2011.

Martin was Chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party from 2016 to 2020. He previously served as a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and was a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action which produced the cross-party report on Climate Action ‘Climate Change: A Cross- Party Consensus for Action’. He has also served on Oireachtas Committees on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural, and Gaeltacht Affairs, and Petitions.

Martin is a native of South Kildare and lives on his family farm with his wife and four children. Martin is a past pupil of Kildalton Agricultural College.

Senator Pippa Hackett is Minister of State for Agriculture with responsibility for Land Use and Biodiversity. She was appointed to this role in June 2020, only the third senator in the history of the state to be elevated to Cabinet.

Senator Hackett was elected to the Agricultural Panel of Seanad Éireann in a by-election on 1 November 2019 and was re-elected in 2020. She is also a former member of Offaly County Council.

She holds a BSc in Agriculture from the University of Essex, a postgraduate diploma from University College Dublin, and a PhD from the University of Limerick.

Minister Hackett has four children, and along with her husband Mark, she runs a farm (Moat House Farm) near Tullamore in Co Offaly. They produce organic beef and sheep, while they also have some bloodstock and forestry.

Moat House Farm is situated on the site of a 12th century Norman motte and bailey identified on the ordnance survey map as "The Moat of Down", hence the business name.

Julia Klöckner was born in 1972, and grew up on her parents’ vineyard in Guldental. She studied political science, Catholic theology and education in Mainz, graduating with a double degree: a Magistra Artium degree and a teaching qualification. After training as a journalist, she was, among other things, an editor at the Meininger Verlag publishing house, and later editor-in-chief of Sommelier magazine, which she co-founded.

In 2002, Julia Klöckner was elected to the German Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU); in 2009, she was appointed as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. She chaired the CDU parliamentary group in the Rhineland-Palatinate Land Parliament from 2011 to 2018. She was chairwoman of the Rhineland-Palatinate Land branch of the CDU from 2011 to 2022, and she served as deputy chairwoman of the CDU Germany from 2012 to January 2022. In 2018, Julia Klöckner was appointed to the Cabinet as Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture. She was elected federal treasurer of the CDU at the federal party conference in January 2022.

Since the 2021 Bundestag election, she has once again been representing Bad Kreuznach and Birkenfeld as a Member of the Bundestag in Berlin. She is the spokeswoman on economic policy for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Outside of politics, Julia Klöckner is active in a great many associations, foundations and social organisations.

Caroline Bocquel is (interim) Chief Executive of Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), Ireland’s Seafood Development Agency. She oversees the development of the Irish seafood sector, valued at €1.26 billion in 2021, by building on its natural advantages, commitment to sustainable fishing and the development of a high quality aquaculture and seafood processing sector and leads a team of some 140 in six main coastal locations in Ireland.

Caroline has extensive managerial and change leadership experience, with an emphasis on diversity, equality and inclusion. She previously held the roles of Chief Financial Officer in Goal and Director of Corporate Service in the Marine Institute.

She is a Chartered Accountant, holds a Degree in Business and Languages from Technological University Dublin and has completed programmes at Harvard Business School and the Institute of Directors.

Karen Brosnan is a management consultant with expertise in Organisation and Strategy Development, Leadership Development, Board Governance, Relationship Management and Executive Coaching. Karen is a strategic advisor to companies, boards and executives in Ireland and overseas. She has more than 20 years’ experience as a strategy consultant, director, facilitator, and board consultant.

Karen implements leadership development programmes, plans strategically for organisational and cultural change, develops diversity and inclusion strategies and builds governance capacity and compliance.

As a founding member and chair of Ceres Network (women in leadership in the Agri-food sector), Karen represented Ceres on the national Agri-food Diversity and Inclusion taskforce. She has also chaired the Boards of Nuffield Ireland and Gurteen College. She acts as external chair of the Board governance sub-committee of ICBF. She actively participates as a representative of the United Nation’s private sector mechanism at the annual Committee for Food Security in Rome.

Siobhán Talbot is Group Managing Director of Glanbia plc, a position she has held since November 2013. Glanbia is an international nutrition company and the world’s no. 1 sports nutrition company, with more than 6,000 employees and operations in 32 countries globally. Prior to her current position, Siobhan was Group Finance Director and has held a variety of finance roles across the Group. In 2022, Siobhan oversaw the sale of the plc’s stake in Glanbia Ireland to Glanbia Co-operative Society.

A graduate of UCD, Siobhán began her career with PwC in 1992 and trained as an accountant, before working in various roles in Ireland and later Australia. She joined Waterford Foods in 1992 and set up the internal audit function there, subsequently becoming financial controller. Waterford Foods merged with Avonmore in 1997 and the new entity was re-named ‘Glanbia’, meaning ‘pure food’ in the Irish language. Siobhán became Group Secretary in 2000 and deputy Group Finance Director in 2005. She was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2009.

Siobhán is a non-Executive Director of CRH and a Board member of IBEC.

Ends

Dr. Edna Curley is the Head of Centre (Principal) at Mountbellew Agricultural College and Farms. Edna comes from a strong agricultural background and is actively involved in the management of a home farm for over 20 years. She graduated with a B.Agr.Sc.(Hons) in Agricultural Science-Animal and Crop Production in 2004 from University College Dublin. Edna followed her undergraduate studies with a MSc. (Research) in Crop Production in 2006 and a PhD (Biomass Production and Water Quality) in 2010 both from University College Dublin at Lyons Estate. From UCD, Edna moved to the National University of Ireland Galway to undertake a number of postdoctoral studies and was involved in the establishment of the MSc. Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security programme. Edna became Principal of Mountbellew Agricultural College in 2019 with a vision to further establish Mountbellew College and Farms as a training and research facility with emphasis on biodiversity, conservation and sustainable production.

Associate Professor Maura Farrell is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies at University of Galway. Maura’s teaching reflects her research specialism which revolves around Rural and Agricultural Geography and her interests focus around processes of social, cultural and economic change for rural inhabitants. Professor Farrell is currently the Principal Investigator on the Irish National Rural Network Project and the more recent Horizon 2020, RURALIZATION Project. More recently, Maura has been successful in securing a €3 million Horizon Europe project to explore the innovative practices of women in agriculture and rural areas.

Aoife Forde is a suckler farmer farming in the heart of the Burren in Co.Clare. She also works as a Business and Technology Drystock advisor in Teagasc based in Kilrush in Co. Clare. Aoife holds a B.Agr.Sc.(Hons) in Agricultural Science from Waterford Institute of Technology and a Masters in Agriculture Innovation and Support from University College Dublin.

Ciara lives in Co. Meath with her husband Peter. Ciara is now a full-time dairy farmer having

previously worked in advertising and digital marketing for 9 years. Ciara and Peter have multiple
dairy units and they also rear their own replacement stock on separate out farms.

"Our focus is on bringing best in class practices to our dairy business by putting the cow and our team at the centre of it. We put a particular focus on excellent calf hygiene, maximum grass utilisation, staff training and smart breeding choices that suit our system to set our cows and our team up for success."

Sinéad leads on agri-food sectoral policy and strategy development in Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Her responsibilities include: policy leadership in respect of the meat and dairy sectors; dairy product controls and certification; food and drinks industry development; agri-food sectoral and strategic planning; economic analysis to inform policy making; and input to international agricultural policy and development co-operation.

Sinéad previously served as the Department’s Chief Economist. Her qualifications include a first class honours Masters degree in Economic Science from University College Dublin, and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration.

Anne-Marie joined Teagasc in 2021 from Ulster Bank where she held a leadership role as Senior Agriculture Manager and Relationship Director. She qualified with a first class honours degree in agriculture from University College Dublin winning the Hussey Prize for agriculture. She went on to obtain a PhD from University College Dublin, completing her doctorate research at Moorepark, under the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship programme. Dr Butler also holds numerous financial qualifications including a University Diploma in Financial Services.

From a tillage farm in Freshford in North Kilkenny, Dr Butler is a former President of the Agricultural Science Association and Honorary President 2021/2022 of IASTA, the Irish Agricultural Science Teachers Association.

Aisling Meehan is a Farmer, Solicitor and Chartered Tax Adviser. Her law firm specialises in agricultural law and tax advice and has a nationwide client base. She takes an active part in shaping agricultural legal and tax policy and was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship in 2011 entitled “Access to Land for Dairying - New Legal and Tax Models in an Irish Context”. She is regularly asked to speak on national television and radio and is solicitor to the Irish Farmers Journal. She set up a co-op called “Understanding Agriculture” the aim of which is to create a greater connection between farmers and consumers. She is a state board member of the Western Development Commission. Aisling is a qualified young trained farmer (Level 6 FETAC 2006) and farms in partnership with her husband Brian, also a young trained farmer (Level 6 FETAC 2018). They have four young children Philip (6), Maureen (5), Holly (3) and Fiachra (1).

In her role as Director of Origin Green, Sustainability and Quality Assurance, at Bord Bia, Deirdre is responsible for driving and implementing the Origin Green strategy and ambition. Origin Green plays a crucial role in driving and demonstrating continuous improvement in sustainability across Ireland’s food and drink sector with progress independently measured, assessed and verified. The ultimate aim of the programme is to safeguard Ireland’s global reputation and competitive advantage as a producer of quality sustainable food. 

Prior to her appointment, Deirdre has also held positions with Lidl, Ornua, Nestle Switzerland, and Metro Group.

Deirdre has extensive leadership experience in with a strong track record of driving impact through by embedding sustainability into business strategy.  Deirdre holds an MSc in Business Sustainability and an MBS in International Business from UCD Smurfit Graduate School, and a Commerce International with Italian from University College Dublin. She is also an Irish Olympian; she competed in the high jump at the London 2012 Olympics. Deirdre is also a board member on the Board of Sport Ireland since July 2021.