Meet the team
As a group, we meet three times a year to discuss and advance a plan of work that is focussed on achieving our objectives. Our members currently include:
Áine is a freshwater ecologist with the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Aoife is an indepdent ecologist with a passion for small wetlands such as ponds and ditches and their importance in the landscape.
Biodiversity Officer, Co. Clare
Heritage Officer Waterford City & County Council
Bernadette works for Waterford City & County Council, and is one of twenty eight Heritage Officers employed by local authorities across Ireland. Heritage Officers work to strengthen policy and decision making within the local authority in relation to natural, built and cultural heritage and to provide advice and guidance for the wider community. Bernadette co-ordinates a programme of work in Waterford through the County Heritage and Biodiversity Plans that in recent years has included the production of a County Habitat Map, County Wetlands Survey, Seminars on the Value of Wetlands and ecological monitoring of constructed wetlands.
Email: bguest@waterfordcouncil.ie
Irish Ramsar Wetlands Committee Officer, Wetland Surveys Ireland
Caroline is an ecologist working with Wetland Surveys Ireland. Part of her role is providing administrative, technical and communications support to the committee.
Email: caroline@wetlandsurveys.ie
Catherine Keena is a Countryside Management Specialist with Teagasc.
Web: www.teagasc.ie
Email: catherine.keena@teagasc.ie
Fernando is the Chair of the IRWC and the National Focal Point for the Convention on Wetlands. Fernando is a Senior Peatland Scientist with National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Gearóid, a native of Thurles, ‘discovered’ Cabragh Wetlands in his adolescent years and found his passion and dedication to the natural world. Fast forward to today, Gearóid is resident in Cloughjordan village and is the Chair of the Cloughjordan Community Development Committee. The committee are the local partners in the LIFE raised bog restoration project at Scohaboy Bog, a national award winning community conservation project with Coillte Forest and the NPWS. Scohaboy forms part of the Community Wetlands Forum and Gearoid is the Forum’s representative on the RAMSAR committee. He is a passionate advocate for community led conservation and community development. Gearóid coordinates the annual Cloughjordan Biodiversity Week Festival, the largest initiative of it’s kind in Ireland and is Vice-Chair of the North Tipperary LEADER Programme Independent Evaluation Committee. These roles are all undertaken in a voluntary capacity.
Hannah is an ecologist with National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Ivan is an Environmental Specialist working with Teagasc.
John represents the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the IRWC. John joined the committee in 2026.
Karin is based at Trinity College Dublin. She sits on the Environment Pillar steering froup, National Biodiversity Forum and Council of the National Economic & Social Council, and on a variety of wetland expert groups. She brings practical wetland protection and restoration experience as well as project design and implementation.
Email: kdubsky@coastwatch.org
Professor and Lecturer in Environmental Science, University of Galway
Irish Wetland Bird Survey (I-WeBS) Coordinator at BirdWatch Ireland
Niamh works for BirdWatch Ireland and sits on the committee as a representative of the Irish Environmental Network (IEN). The IEN is an umbrella network consisting of environmental NGOs that carry out their work through practical conservation work, campaigning, lobbying and raising public awareness of environmental and conservation needs. The network objective is to support environmental NGOs through access to funding and services. Day-to-day Niamh coordinates I-WeBS and its 400 plus participants – largely consisting of volunteers. The survey has monitored wintering waterbirds that use wetlands throughout Ireland, every winter, since 1994. It is instrumental in monitoring waterbird populations and protecting the wetlands they rely on.
Email: iwebs@birdwatchireland.ie
National Parks and Wildlife S
Project Manager of the Breeding Waders EIP.
Office of Public Works
Patrick is a numerical modeller working with the EPA in the Catchments Unit. Patrick has completed a number of research projects involving wetlands including fens, bogs and turloughs, with an emphasis on their hydrological response both through the saturated and unsaturated zones. Patrick retains a keen interest in wetlands in both advancing the understanding of their hydrological processes and in their protection and restoration.
Email: P.Morrissey2@epa.ie
Hydraulic expert, Education Trinity College Dublin
Email: pjhnston@tcd.ie
Paul works in Research and Development in Inland Fisheries Ireland, conducting research into the ecology and surveys of fish stocks in Ireland’s lakes and rivers. Paul’s work focuses on the coarse fish species (non-salmonids) and pike.
Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is the statutory agency responsible for inland fisheries in Ireland. It operates under the aegis of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE) and is responsible for the conservation, protection, management, marketing, development and improvement of our inland fisheries and sea angling resources. Its mission is ”To ensure the valuable natural resources of Inland Fisheries and Sea Angling are conserved, managed, developed and promoted in their own right to generate a positive return for the community and the environment”.
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
South West Regional Projects Lead, LAWPRO
Project Manager Tóchar Midland Wetlands Restoration Project.
Tristram Whyte, Policy Officer with the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, is part of a small team that campaigns and fundraises for the protection of peatlands for the benefits in biodiversity, climate change reversal and water quality. Tristram is based at the Bog of Allen Nature Centre in Lullymore, County Kildare.
Email: bogs@ipcc.ie
