I see that Tom Tynan has been appointed special adviser to Timmy Dooley, Minister of State with responsibility for the Marine and Fisheries.

The portfolio is spread across two departments: the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Climate, Environment and Energy for Marine Planning and Inland Fisheries.

This won’t pose any problems for Tynan, who has worked with IFA, was adviser to Ivan Yates when he was Agriculture Minister, and was a key part of Phil Hogan’s cabinet at the European Commission. He also was commercial director of IAWS in its heyday, and, crucially, chief operating officer of Welcon CS, which was Europe’s largest manufacturer of marine proteins and oils at the time.

It does mean that Tynan will have to step away from his roles as a non-executive director of both the Shannon Foynes Port company and the Marine Institute. Tynan’s first role in his new brief was alongside Minister Dooley in Luxembourg on Monday and Tuesday last, at a fisheries ministerial council meeting.