High profile appointment for Feargal O'Rourke

Just months after retiring as managing partner of Pwc, Athlone's Feargal O'Rourke has been appointed Chairperson of IDA Ireland.

While the State agency responsible for attracting foreign direct investment, has yet to publicly announce the new position, Mr O'Rourke's name appears on the stateboards.ie list as Chair of IDA Ireland, following his ministerial appointment on December 31 last.

He succeeds Frank Ryan, who was in the job since 2014, and reflects a complete change in leadership at IDA Ireland following the departure of established CEO Martin Shanahan last year and Michael Lohan taking his place.

Back in October, Mr O'Rourke announced his plans to retire from PwC, one of the country's best known accounting and consultancy firms after 37 years, the final eight as a managing partner.

As a senior tax adviser to many multinationals over that time, the Athlone native, who is son of former Minister Mary O'Rourke, and the brother of current Cllr Aengus O'Rourke, would be extremely familiar with the issues facing large companies coming to Ireland and would be well connected in the sector.

Mr O'Rourke's appointment as chair of IDA Ireland, a non-executive position, was confirmed by Simon Coveney, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, following a process managed by the Public Appointments Service.

Feargal will chair the 12-person board for a five-year term with Marian Corcoran as deputy chair.

The IDA Ireland annual report for 2022 lists the fees for the then chair of the board Frank Ryan as 20,520 with expenses of 5,821.

Just before Christmas, the organisation reported an increase in the number of investments into Ireland during 2023 totalling 248, which are expected to deliver almost 19,000 jobs to the economy. A third of investments amounting to 83, were greenfield or first-time investments.

The Midlands saw the strongest level of growth, up 5.8% on the previous year.