Liam Herilhy, Teagasc chairman; Professor Frank O’Mara, incoming Teagasc Director and Professor Gerry Boyle, the outgoing Teagasc Director on their way into the Teagasc Press Conference on the official publication of the Teagasc Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2020 last week.

O'Mara takes up role as new head of Teagasc

Outgoing director Boyle apologises for remarks made in final days in job

John Donohoe

Published: Fri 1 Oct 2021, 9:48 AM

Last updated: Fri 1 Oct 2021, 9:57 AM

Professor Frank O’Mara has today commenced his role as the new Director of Teagasc, succeeding Professor Gerry Boyle.

Professor O’Mara is an agricultural scientist and sustainable livestock systems specialist, with over 30 years’ experience in technical and senior managerial capacities in agri-food research, education and development institutions.

Living in County Carlow, he is a native of Lisronagh in County Tipperary.

Since 2009, he has been the Director of Research in Teagasc, leading the Research Directorate. Under his leadership, the number of peer - reviewed publications has increased from 258 in 2008 to 726 in 2020. This has ensured that Teagasc Research has had a major impact on the agri-food sector and government policy over the last decade supported by national and EU funding and has facilitated the growth in the Walsh Scholarship programme.

He qualified with a first class honours B Agr Sc from University College Dublin in 1987, winning the McGuickian medal, and the Hussey Prize for agricultural economics in his final year. He went on to obtain a PhD from UCD in 1993, completing his doctorate research at Teagasc Moorepark. In his early career, he was a senior lecturer, Associate Professor and researcher in UCD for 10 years, specialising in animal nutrition and animal production.

Chairman of Teagasc, Liam Herlihy said: “I look forward to working with Frank as Director of Teagasc. He has a particular interest in sustainable agriculture and food systems and I am confident he will successfully lead Teagasc through the changes required to assist Irish farmers and the agri-food sector to meet the environmental, economic and social challenges facing the sector. I would like to thank Professor Gerry Boyle for his leadership of the organisation as Director, over the last 14 years."

Gerry Boyle's last days in the role were overshadowed by remarks he made at a recent Dublin Economics Workshop that he admitted "caused such considerable annoyance and offence to so many beef producers and advisory colleagues within Teagasc".

Last Friday, he issued a statement saying that he "unreservedly apologises for the offence caused". He went on to remark that this was never his intention and while his remarks were taken out of context, their effect was nevertheless to deeply offend so many people that he had worked with over the years.

Professor Boyle said that his remarks were taken to imply that Teagasc had adopted a policy position in favour of dairy beef over sucklers.

"This impression was most unfortunate for two reasons."

First, he stated that Teagasc’s role was not to promote any particular enterprise. Secondly, the impression created by his remarks was completely contrary to the substantial investment that Teagasc had made in its beef programme during his period as director.