The senior director of Meat Industry Ireland (MII), Cormac Healy, has been appointed as the new director of Drinks Ireland.
The news was confirmed in a statement from the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec) this afternoon (Monday, May 16).
It is understood Healy will leave his position as MII director when he steps into his new position within Ibec.
Healy was appointed to the role of senior executive director of MII in late 2015 and has served in the position for over six years.
He previously had responsibilities within the Irish Dairy Industries Association (IDIA).
The outgoing MII boss will succeed Patricia Callan as the director of Drinks Ireland.
Healy’s tenure as senior director of MII has been an eventful one, to say the least.
In the late summer and early autumn of 2019, a series of farmer protests at processing plant gates rocked the beef industry.
Throughout those protests, and the industry talks that followed, Healy was the public face of the processor’s response, bearing much of the criticism from the farming organisations that was directed at the factories.
Healy continued to represent the industry at the various meetings of the now-decommissioned Beef Market Taskforce.
MII is the representative organisation for the meat industry within Ibec.
Ibec is a lobby and business representative group that is made up of several smaller representative groups covering various sectors of the economy.
The group has over 250 employees and its main role is to engage with key stakeholders both in Ireland and internationally through its six regional offices and its Brussels office, along with international networks in both the UK and the US.
Ibec’s membership ranges from small to large businesses that are both domestic and multinational.
Its 40 trade associations cover a range of industry sectors and its members employ over 70% of the private sector workforce in Ireland, according to the Ibec website.