Aidan O’Driscoll has been appointed the new secretary general at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, but what is known about the new man in charge of Irish agriculture? On the face of it, very little, it would appear.

As one former colleague told the Irish Farmers Journal: “Well, I think he’s from Cork, but he’s an ardent Leinster rugby fan and he cycles to work. If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.”

Former ministers, those who negotiated both with and against him, as well as colleagues past and present, have all widely welcomed O’Driscoll’s appointment.

“Aidan will bring excellent leadership to the Department and is the perfect replacement for Tom [Moran, former secretary general],” said former Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith.

“He delivered a good CAP deal for Ireland. Regardless of how we got there or what happened along the road, Aidan did do the job for Ireland,” former IFA president John Bryan said.

The position of secretary general often goes unseen, but it is the constant in a changing political dynamic. The minister of the time must work with the secretary general in developing and implementing policy to deliver for farmers as well as the broader agriculture and marine sectors.

While there were a number of high-calibre internal candidates, O’Driscoll was the only candidate on the final three-person shortlist.

“It was always his to lose,” as close observers noted. There were two outsiders, including an assistant secretary from the Department of Expenditure and Public Reform. O’Driscoll is the first chief economist with the Department of Agriculture to get the secretary general position.

Prior to becoming secretary general, O’Driscoll most recently served as assistant secretary with responsibility for EU affairs, economics and climate change.

While O’Driscoll looked after climate change negotiations and World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in the role, it is the whole area of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and its reform where he is best known. But where did his career begin?

Career path

A graduate of University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and the University of London, O’Driscoll joined the Department of Agriculture as an administrative officer in 1977.

He subsequently acted as an adviser for an Irish aid programme with the Zimbabwean ministry of agriculture from 1985 to 1988.

He also served as chief technical adviser with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Tanzania from 1990 to 1992, before returning to Dublin.

Those close to O’Driscoll said his time in Africa had a profound impact on his outlook on agriculture. O’Driscoll witnessed large southern African farmers, which apparently changed his view on industrial farming and he now favours smaller holdings.

He had a brief stint as an agricultural attaché (diplomatic representative) at the Irish embassy in Rome, before returning to the Department in Dublin to take the chief economist position in 1995.

He remained in that role until 2001, when he was appointed assistant secretary, the position he held until becoming secretary general.

It is the area of CAP reform where O’Driscoll really made his name. Some would argue that he has been the most influential person in the shaping of CAP for Ireland as far back as 2003.

He is credited by some as being the innovator of the approximation model used in the new CAP.

He is an economist and he is clinical. A person who looks at the macro economy in favour of the micro, which, according to one colleague, will mean he will perform well when it comes to negotiating budgets with secretaries general from other departments.

“He is a negotiator par excellence. He’s also very comfortable at EU levels, he’s familiar with how the EU works. He is the ideal candidate for the job,” they said.

There are critics of O’Driscoll, however. The same traits which he is lauded for having, a macro economist and having an intrinsic knowledge of the EU, have been used as negatives.

“There is very little connect between [O’Driscoll] and the ordinary farmer on the ground,” one person said.

One thing is for sure, there is no shortage of issues for the low-profile, well-travelled negotiator to tackle in the years ahead.