The current head of the European Commission representation in Ireland and former economist with the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Gerry Kiely will bring a storied career to an end shortly, when he retires in a number of weeks.
Kiely spent eight years with the IFA, first as its economist, from 1981 to 1989. He subsequently moved to Belgium to head up the association’s Brussels office as director, from 1984 to 1989.
It was in that year that he joined the European civil service, specialising in international relations on agriculture.
He then moved to the US to take charge of the agriculture, food safety, consumer affairs and fisheries section of the EU delegations in Washington, a position he held between 2000 and 2003.
After that, Kiely held a number of positions in the Directorate General for Agriculture, including six years as the head of the unit for pre-accession assistance, which provides funding to countries that are candidates for EU membership.
It was from there that he moved on to his current position as head of the EU delegation in Dublin.