Team Profiles
The Office team maintains a network of contacts in the European institutions, other regional representations, the British and Irish Permanent Representations and the Northern Ireland community in Brussels. They aim to work particularly closely with the three Northern Ireland Members of the European Parliament.
The office team consists of
The office team consists of
- the Head of Office
- the Deputy Head of Office
- the Agriculture Policy Officer
- the Policy Officer
- other team members
The Director is Evelyn Cummins. As from 1 February 2006 Evelyn took over from Tony Canavan who had been Director since the Office was established in the spring of 2001.
Evelyn previously worked in community development and regeneration in North Belfast. Before that she worked for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in policy posts covering fisheries, agricultural support and rural development.
The Deputy Director is Alasdair MacInnes who was appointed to the post in August 2006. He previously worked in the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, most recently in Farm Policy Branch and before that in Rural Development Central Unit and DARD's Private Office.
The team was expanded in 2003 with the addition of an Agriculture Policy Officer. Eileen Kelly was appointed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) to cover agri-food, veterinary, fisheries and rural development issues. Eileen has experienced many areas of DARD's work including the Science service (Biometrics), Training and Development, Rivers Agency and Animal Health. In 1999, Eileen was seconded to Directorate General (DG) Regional Policy where she assisted in the negotiations of the 2000-2006 structural funds programmes for Northern Ireland (BSP, PEACE II and URBAN II). Since taking up the post in the Office in 2003, Eileen has assisted the department in its work in Brussels regarding the 2003 mid term review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) modifications to the Northern Ireland Rural Development Plan, implementation of the Nitrates Directive and agricultural state aid applications.
June 2008 saw the addition of another policy officer. Noel Griffin joined the team with responsibility for Environment and Transport. He previously worked in the Department for Employment and Learning, most recently on the implementation of Success through Skills: the Skills Strategy for Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland staff are supported by two locally recruited colleagues, Corinne Becquevort and Heather Olbrechts-Lyons. Two consultants from Invest Northern Ireland are also located in the Office and cover France and the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) from their Brussels base.
