NCSE Council

Fergal Lynch – Council Chairperson

Dr Fergal Lynch was appointed Chair of the NCSE Council in August 2023. He is a career public servant with over forty years of experience working in Government Departments. Fergal was Secretary General of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth from 2015 to 2022,and previously worked in the Department of Health for most of his career, serving there as an Assistant Secretary from 2006 to 2012 and as Deputy Secretary General from 2012 to 2015. He now works with the University of Galway as Senior Lead in Government and Public Policy Engagement, a role which seeks to foster closer links between policy practitioners and academics in the development, implementation and evaluation of public policy.

Fergal was the chair of the Board of the Institute of Public Administration from 2019 to 2022. He holds a Doctorate in Governance (Queen’s University Belfast), an M.Sc (Econ) in Policy Studies (Trinity College Dublin) and a BA in Public Administration (Institute of Public Administration).