Minister O’Brien Announces Appointment of the Board of Tailte Éireann

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, TD, today appointed the Ordinary Members of the first Board of newly established state body, Tailte Éireann. The Minister has also notified the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage that he has selected Mr David McGarry as Prospective Chair of Tailte Éireann for a five year period. The Ordinary Board members appointed are Martin Sisk, Rowena Mulcahy, Mary Keane, Shirley Coulter, Deirdre O’Keeffe and Gerard Quinn. 
Minister O’Brien said: 
“I am delighted to announce the appointment of Tailte Éireann’s first Board today. This new state body will bring together a wealth of expertise and experience from the former public bodies of the Property Registration Authority, the Valuation Office and Ordnance Survey Ireland. This will facilitate the streamlining of enhanced land and geospatial services for the State and will allow Tailte Éireann to take advantage of the national geospatial data hub and efficiently combine and integrate the wealth of authoritative land information held by the three former public bodies.”
“The expertise of the appointed Board members and the Prospective Chair will provide vital input to the strategic oversight of Tailte Éireann. As well as having collective responsible for the long-term sustainability of the body, these non-executive Board members will bring an independent judgement to bear on issues of performance, resources, key appointments, and standards of conduct. They will play an essential role in guiding and advising the Chief Executive in relation to the performance by Tailte Éireann of its functions. I would like to thank all of the Board Members for their agreement to serve and wish them every success in their future endeavours. I look forward to working with them and the Executive team to progress important strategic priorities in the future.”
The Minister also noted that the Prospective Chair, David McGarry, who is a member of the Institute of Directors and Chartered Accountants Ireland, brings a wealth of experience to the Board, with former board roles with Bus Éireann and Indaver, and a number of years as chairperson of the Shannon Foynes Port Company and non-executive director of Avadel Ireland. He was previously CFO of Shannon Group, Finance Director of Indaver and an executive with NCB and KPMG. 
The Minister noted that: 
“David has significant experience in strategic development, change management, transformation, business planning and analysis, financial management, digitisation and governance. He will lead the provision of valuable support by the Board to the management team of Tailte Éireann as they look to integrate and exploit synergies between the various divisions of the new organisation, through the use of technology and better data management opportunities across the functional areas.”
ENDS
Note for Editors
Role of Tailte Éireann
The Tailte Éireann Act 2022 provided for the dissolution of the Property Registration Authority (PRA) and Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) and the transfer of the functions of those bodies, along with the functions of the Commissioner of Valuation and the Boundary Surveyor, to Tailte Éireann. The dissolution and transfer took effect on 1st March 2023. All the functions currently carried out by the Property Registration Authority, the Commissioner of Valuation, the Boundary Surveyor, and Ordnance Survey Ireland will now be performed by Tailte Éireann.
 
Tailte Éireann will provide a comprehensive and secure property title registration system, a professional State valuation service and an authoritative national mapping and surveying infrastructure. The body will be independent in the performance of its functions and will be the primary national source of property information and geospatial data and a leader in the development and delivery of land information services. As an integrated land and property service, Tailte Eireann will help to support the planning process and professionals; providing one central body for this information and data.
 
Appointment of the Board
The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is authorised to appoint the Board under Section 9 of the Tailte Éireann Act 2022. Following completion of an independent process through an open state boards competition managed by the Public Appointments Service (PAS), recommendations of suitable candidates were provided to the Minister. The Ordinary Board members have been appointed by the Minister. 
 
The Joint Oireachtas Committee may choose to invite persons proposed for appointment as Chairperson of a body under the aegis of a Department to appear before them to discuss their strategic priorities for the role. The JOC has been notified of the selection of David McGarry as Prospective Chair of Tailte Éireann.