About the Just Transition Commission

Member and Chair of the Just Transition Commission are appointed for a three-year term, renewable once. Commissioner Members and Chair were appointed in October 2024.

Ali Sheridan – Chair

Ali has held a range of senior climate leadership roles and has supported the development and growth of climate programmes including at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, IKEA, and Bord Bia, as well as previous roles with the Sustainable Agricultural Initiative and An Taisce.

She has supported a diverse range of organisations and sectors to develop credible and just climate transition strategies, and is an occasional lecturer.

Ali holds a MSc Business Sustainability, MSc Sustainable Development, and BSc Environmental Management. She sits on the Advisory Committee of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Dublin City University (DCU) Climate Advisory Board, and the Board of Common Knowledge. Ali has been appointed for a period of three years.

Conor Minogue

Conor Minogue is a senior policy executive in the business group Ibec. Since joining the organisation in 2012, Conor has held several policy roles. He now works with Ibec members to develop and promote the energy and climate policy agenda for Irish business. He also provides guidance to industry on climate action and sustainability reporting. He was the lead author of Ibec’s Climate Action Toolkit for Business and Ibec’s 2019 Low Carbon Roadmap. Before Ibec, he worked at the EU Embassy in Washington DC. Conor studied history and international relations at University College Dublin (UCD), University of California Berkeley, and Cambridge University. He also holds an Advanced Diploma in Planning and Environmental Law from the King’s Inns. Conor has been appointed for a period of three years.

Dr Diarmuid Torney

Dr Diarmuid Torney is Director of the DCU Centre for Climate and Society and an Associate Professor in the School of Law and Government at DCU. His research focuses on climate change policy and governance. He is coordinator of a Horizon Europe project called RETOOL, aimed at strengthening democratic governance for climate transitions in Europe, and leads DCU's participation in the Research Ireland funded Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water. He is an independent expert member of the National Economic and Social Council and a member of the Executive Group of the All Island Climate and Biodiversity Research Network. Dr Torney has been appointed for a period of three years.

Dr Evan Boyle

Dr Evan Boyle is a Senior Postdoctoral researcher with the MaREI Centre Energy, Climate and Marine co-ordinated by the Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork (UCC). His research focuses on community engagement for energy transitions and transdisciplinary approaches to sustainability. His work has implementing action research methods for co-creating climate action solutions with stakeholders beyond academia through involvement in a number of projects including Dingle Peninsula 2030 (2018-2021), Imaginging2050 (2018-2020), and STEPS (2022-2024), and has sought to inform policy on just and inclusive methods for achieving the energy transition. Dr Boyle has been appointed for a period of three years.

Michelle Murphy

Michelle Murphy is a Research and Policy Analyst with Social Justice Ireland. She provides research, policy analysis and strategic engagement on sustainability, rural development and the impact of policy on income distribution and social inclusion. She has produced several pieces of social policy research on sustainability and just transition, including policy options to deliver on our climate targets through a Just Transition framework, the impact of Brexit on a just transition in rural communities in Ireland, the impact of our climate targets on regional development, and trends in income distribution, poverty and social inclusion. Michelle has been appointed for a period of three years.

Oisín Coughlan

Oisín Coghlan has been the Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth since 2005. He co-founded the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition in 2007 and led the 14-year campaign for a strong climate law, which culminated in the passing of the 2021 Climate Act. Oisín was one of the co-founders of the Environmental Pillar in 2009, the advocacy coalition of environmental NGOs and represented the Pillar on the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) from 2009 to 2016. He co-founded the Irish Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change in 2009 with Vodafone and Business in the Community, and the Just Transition Alliance with ICTU, SIPTU and Fórsa in 2019. From 2019 to 2023 Oisín sat on the Steering Committee of Coalition 2023, the broad Irish civil society coalition that champions Government action to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Ryan McKinney

Ryan McKinney is currently Head of Strategic Change at Fórsa, Ireland’s second largest union. In this position he oversees an ambitious and diverse change programme, leads groundbreaking initiatives including a multi-million-euro investment in a bespoke membership system, designing and implementing internationally developed methodology to transform member participation and delivery on the union’s current strategic plan.

Ryan has over twenty years’ experience in industrial relations and campaigning having held senior roles in the trade union movement in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland.

Seamus Boland

Seamus Boland has expertise in rural and agricultural affairs with over 30 years’ experience working with communities and policy makers. As CEO of Irish Rural Link, he has helped build a national rural network of 600 community organisations. He was Chair of Pobal and served on the Board of the Wheel.

Seamus is also a farmer who lives in the Midlands. He is Chair of The Irish Peatlands Council, and chairs the Government interdepartmental committee responsible for implementation of the Peatlands Strategy. He is in his second term as President of the Civil Society Organisations’ Group, (European Economic Social Council). Seamus has been appointed for a period of three years.

Suresh Kumar

Suresh Kumar is the Deputy Director for Innovation, Industrial Transformation for the Scottish Government and was previously the Chief Operating Officer for the Max Planck Research Society. Suresh is an experienced senior leader who worked across policy, strategy and operations in the universities, research and innovation sectors focusing on capital projects, talent, skills, entrepreneurship and job creation pathways and state of the art industry-university infrastructure. He is an expert in public private partnerships, and a strategist in setting future directions for scientific/technological domains at national, European, and international levels in partnership with Business, Industry and SMEs.

Tanya Ward

Tanya Ward is the Chief Executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance. Previously, she was the Deputy Director at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and also worked with the Irish Centre for Migration Studies, the Irish Refugee Council and the Curriculum Development Unit. A former lecturer in human rights at Trinity College Dublin (TCD)  and the UCD  School for Social Justice, she is a graduate from UCC and has a LLM in Human Rights from Queens University Belfast. Tanya has served on the boards of the International Federation of Human Rights, Mental Health Reform, the Law Centre for Children and Young People and is currently Vice President of Eurochild. She was Chair of the National Advisory Council for Children and Young People and is currently a member of the Programme Board on Senior Cycle Reform. Tanya was awarded the Excellence in Leadership Award in 2024. Tanya has been appointed for a period of three years.

Vanessa Kiely O’Connor

Vanessa Kiely O'Connor is a farmer from Innishannon, County Cork. She has graduated with a Diploma in Environmental Science and Social Policy and holds a Diploma in Corporate Direction (Food Business), from UCC. She also holds a Certificate in Business Strategy from UCD.

Appointed as Irish Co-opeative Organisation Society (ICOS) representative to Teagasc and chairs Teagasc's Advisory and Education committee. She is a board director at Bandon Co-operative and also serves on the board of Clona Dairy Products.

She is a member of the Women in Agriculture Stakeholder Group and is an Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) National Council member, previously serving on their Farm Business committee. Vanessa has been appointed for a period of three years.

In September 2023 and in line with Climate Action Plan 2023 commitments, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications convened a Taskforce on Just Transition to build consensus on an agreed approach on the establishment of a Just Transition Commission and to provide advice to the Minister and Government regarding the mandate, membership, and structure of the Commission. The Taskforce presented it final report to the Minster in February 2024.

The Taskforce was chaired by Mr Kieran Mulvey, previous Just Transition Commissioner for the Midlands.

Further information on the Just Transition Taskforce, its membership and its report can be found here.