Speakers Bio | SOTEU 2023: What Will It Mean For Ireland?

Dr Pat Ivory is Director of EU & International Affairs at Ibec. He has represented Irish business at European and international level for more than 25 years. Prior to joining Ibec, Pat worked as a corporate planner and economist in the private and public sectors.

Pat provides strategic leadership to Ibec’s policy teams in Dublin and Brussels that develop positions and campaigns across EU affairs, digital and global trade policies and wider international issues impacting the environment for Irish business. Ibec’s Stronger Europe, Stronger Ireland campaign focuses on business competitiveness and the potential of the single market, leading in an innovative digital decade, putting sustainability at the heart of prosperity, and an EU that is open to trade and investment.

Pat represents Ibec on the Executive Committee of BusinessEurope, which brings together business federations, representing enterprises of all sizes, from 35 European countries. He is Chair of the BusinessEurope International Relations Committee, which sets the business priorities on trade and international affairs through its working groups and networks. Pat is also Chair of the Business at the OECD (BIAC) Trade Committee that provides business perspectives to the OECD on trade issues. He has been a lead business representative in engagement with government officials at national, EU and international level, including in the USA and at World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Pat completed a PhD focused on industrial clusters at Dublin City University (DCU) and BA (Mod) and MLitt degrees in Economics at Trinity College Dublin.

Owen Reidy was appointed General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in October 2022. Before taking up this role he was the Assistant General Secretary with responsibility for Northern Ireland since 2016. A union official with over 24 years full-time experience in the Irish trade union movement he started his union career as an official with SIPTU in Mayo in 1998.

During his 18 years in SIPTU, he represented and organised workers across the Republic of Ireland in the aviation, state and related agency, finance, contract cleaning and security services sectors. From 2013-16 he was a member of the SIPTU management team leading one of the Union’s 5 Divisions, the Transport, Energy, Aviation and Construction (TEAC) Division.

He led several significant industrial disputes during that period including the Greyhound lockout, the Luas dispute and disputes in the CIE transport group. He is a father of 2 and from Donegal.

Ivan Cooper is CEO of The Wheel, Ireland’s national association of charities, community organisations, and social enterprises. In his previous role as Director of Public Policy, he was responsible for progressing The Wheel’s policy positions on cross-cutting issues affecting the community and voluntary sector, such as charity regulation, funding the sector, encouraging active citizenship, quality standards, and raising awareness of the role and significance of the sector.

Ivan has wide-ranging career experience working in the private, public and community and voluntary sectors including diverse roles from managing finance, ensuring good governance, developing funding and business lines, developing strategy, directing public affairs, engaging with the media, and general high-level communications work.

Ivan represents The Wheel on a range of national and international fora, and he regularly works with the boards of community and voluntary organisations on their governance and trustee responsibilities. A big believer in lifelong learning, Ivan has an MBA from Smurfit Business School, a Diploma in Development Studies, and a primary degree in psychology and philosophy from UCD.

Dr Eileen Culloty is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communications at Dublin City University (DCU), deputy director of the DCU Institute for Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo), and coordinator of the Ireland Hub for the European Digital Media Observatory.

She is co-author of Disinformation and Manipulation in Digital Media (Routledge in 2021) and vice-chair of Media Literacy Ireland.

Conn McCarrick is an artist and activist. Based in Dublin, Conn is a former UN Youth Delegate for Ireland, Chairperson of the National Youth Parliament and Research Assistant at the Department of Education and Skills.

For more than ten years, he has been working to amplify the voices of young people and the LGBT+ community on a local, national and international level. This year, he took part in the EUACT2 youth consultation in Bratislava with European Movement Ireland.

As part of Ireland’s Delegation to the United Nations, Conn made contributions to the UN Security Council about climate change and the youth, peace and security agenda. He has addressed two Oireachtas committees seeking greater inclusion of young voices in political decision making processes. Since 2015, he has also been delivering educational workshops to students across the country with the LGBT+ charity, Shoutout.

Conn is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design and is a member of MART Studios in Dublin. His photographic work has been shown in exhibitions across Ireland, the UK and the USA. His work focuses on the experience of queer young people in Ireland and draws from his background in campaigning for social and political rights.

Sorcha Tunney has 15 years of experience in human rights, public engagement, and advocacy. She has worked and led advocacy human rights campaigns from Amnesty International focusing on women’s human rights, the right to housing and non-discrimination campaigns.

Sorcha led the Irish Coalition for Business and Human Rights in recent years, driving their advocacy and policy work towards securing mandatory gender-responsive, human rights and environmental corporate accountability legislation.

Sorcha now works with Trócaire as a human rights policy and advocacy advisor, focusing on corporate accountability. In addition, she supports Trócaire’s partner organisations in countries such as Honduras and Guatemala, helping communities protect their land, their livelihoods, and their environment.

Ciarán Cuffe is a Member of the European Parliament for Dublin with the Green Party. He sits on the Energy and Transport Committees, and is president of EUFORES, a European body that promotes renewable energy and energy efficiency. He is a trained architect and urban planner, and is currently the Rapporteur for the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).

Prior to his election to the European Parliament in 2019, he served as a Dublin City Councillor, Teachta Dála (TD) for Dún Laoghaire, and Minister of State with responsibility for sustainable transport and climate change.

Barry Andrews serves as an Irish MEP representing the Dublin constituency. Barry is a member of the Fianna Fáil party which is part of the Renew Europe group in the Parliament. Before entering political life Barry was a secondary school teacher and was elected to the Dáil (Irish Parliament) in 2002 as a TD representing the Dún Laoghaire constituency.

He served as Minister of State for Children from 2008 to 2011 before taking a hiatus from formal political life and taking up the position of CEO of the International Development NGO GOAL in 2012. Barry became the Director-General of the Institute of International and European Affairs in 2017 until his election to the European Parliament in 2019.

Barry took his seat in the European Parliament in January 2020 after the United Kingdom left the European Union.

Flor MacCarthy is a journalist and author who presents political programmes on Oireachtas TV, interviewing politicians, academics, and journalists at Leinster House and at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, covering national and international politics and current affairs.

Prior to this, Flor spent fifteen years as a senior news journalist and presenter at RTÉ. Her bestselling book, The Presidents’ Letters (New Island Books) was shortlisted for Best Irish-Published Book 2021 at the An Post Irish Book Awards.

Flor contributes to a variety of arts and history programmes and has worked on a number of events in the Decade of Centenaries. From West Cork, she lives in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, with her family.