Darragh O'Brien

David McGarry has been selected as prospective chair of Tailte Éireann, while Martin Sisk, Rowena Mulcahy, Mary Keane, Shirley Coulter, Deirdre O’Keeffe and Gerard Quinn have been appointed as ordinary members of the board.

Of the six ordinary members, Ms Mulcahy is a practising solicitor and Ms Keane is a former director-general of the Law Society of Ireland.

Darragh O’Brien, the minister for housing, local government and heritage, 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.”

He added: “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.”

Mr McGarry, the prospective chair, is a member of the Institute of Directors and Chartered Accountants Ireland.

He previously held board roles with Bus Éireann and Indaver, and spent 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.

Commenting on Mr McGarry’s selection as prospective chair, Mr O’Brien said: “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.”