News archive Law Lecturer Appointed to EPA Advisory Committee

Dr Rónán Kennedy, a lecturer in the School of Law and a researcher in the Ryan Institute, has been appointed to the Advisory Committee of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a three year term. This role involves making recommendations to the Agency on a wide range of topics, including staffing, service provision, standards and guidelines, and research and work programmes. The Committee can also make recommendations to the Minister for Community, Climate Action, and Environment on the functions, financing, and activities of the Agency.

Rónán’s research focuses on the relationship between information and communications technology and environmental regulation, and he is currently leading a project to implement a blockchain-based currency for the Cloughjordan ecovillage. He is a graduate of University College Galway, NUI Galway, the King’s Inns, New York University and University College London. He has extensive practical experience in the information technology field, but was also Executive Legal Officer to the Chief Justice of Ireland, Mr Justice Ronan Keane, from 2000 to 2004. During this time, he was editor of “The Supreme Court of Ireland: A History”, first editor of the Judicial Studies Institute Journal, and was involved in a number of initiatives to expand the use of information technology in the courts. Before joining the Law School at NUI Galway, he taught environmental law and public international law in the University of Limerick.

Welcoming the appointment, Professor Donncha O’Connell, Head of the School of Law at NUI Galway, said: “The appointment of Dr Kennedy to this critically important Committee of the EPA speaks highly of his established expertise as an environmental lawyer and is a very well-deserved recognition of the contribution that he makes as an academic of the highest probity. It is extremely gratifying to see another member of the School of Law associated with a public body, building upon the connections already established by others with state bodies such as the Law Reform Commission and the Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission.”