It\u2019s a case of replacing one former TD for another, as the position was previously held by Noel Rock of Fine Gael who stepped down nine months ago.<\/p>\n
Mr Berry was a one-term TD in Kildare South, being elected as an independent in 2020 but failing to hold the seat at the last general election. He then made an unsuccessful bid for the Seanad.<\/p>\n
A qualified medical doctor, Mr Berry was head of the medical school of the Defence Forces, and spent six years as second-in-command of the Army Rangers, the special operations unit. He has extensive overseas military experience, including leading the unit in Chad.<\/p>\n
As a TD and since he left politics, he has been vocal on defence issues, arguing that Ireland\u2019s armed forces have been chronically underfunded for generations, with the result that the country is \u201cvirtually defenceless\u201d. He has also criticised the \u201congoing remuneration and retention crises\u201d in the Defence Forces.<\/p>\n
In a statement about joining Red Flag, Mr Berry said: \u201cAs the challenges facing our world are now more complex and multi-faceted than ever, the provision of expert and timely advice has never been more important.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is the second former TD to join the communications consultancy, as it signed up Denis Naughten, a former government minister, as a senior adviser last December.<\/p>\n
There is now a long line of former politicians, many from Fine Gael, joining public affairs consultancies as advisers. They include two former Taoisigh, with Enda Kenny being appointed to the board of Heneghan PR and Leo Varadkar as a \u201cglobal adviser\u201d at Penta.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2013, the Dublin-headquartered Red Flag was sold last year to Ankura Consulting Group, a New York-based global management consulting firm. While the exact financial terms were not disclosed, industry sources suggested the sales price was about \u20ac45m.<\/p>\n
The company said that Mr Berry would advise clients across a range of industries, including health, defence, tech, and energy and others. He will work with companies based in Ireland, but his international experience would \u201cbring huge value to Red Flag\u2019s global regulatory and policy campaigns across many markets\u201d.<\/p>\n
Deirdre Grant, the managing director of Red Flag in Ireland, said: \u201cThe depth and breadth of his experience both in national politics and international relations will assist our clients to navigate an increasingly volatile geopolitical situation. This appointment also underlines our commitment to our work in Ireland as we continue to expand our offering here and internationally as part of the wider Ankura Consulting Group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chief executive Karl Brophy noted that Ireland is about to take the presidency of the EU, while the geopolitical situation is changing on a constant basis. \u201cCathal Berry\u2019s appointment comes at a pivotal time in international relations and he is now part of the team of more than 2,500 consultants across Ankura, working in 55 countries across the globe,\u201d Mr Brophy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a case of replacing one former TD for another, as the position was previously held by Noel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8936,61,60,5243,3581,43],"class_list":["post-433366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-enda-kenny","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-burns","tag-leo-varadkar","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}