Mark Hanniffy is Director of the EU Presidency Policy Unit at Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and leads the team preparing Ireland’s overall policy approach for its Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2026. He previously served as Southern Joint Secretary to the North South Ministerial Council in Armagh (2019-23), as Consul General of Ireland in Scotland (2016-19), and as First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations in Geneva (2010-13). At Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade headquarters he has held a range of roles in the Policy Planning Unit, the Trade and Promotion Division, the Secretary General’s Office and the Political Division, and also spent a period on secondment to the Committees Secretariat in the Oireachtas working on EU affairs. He is a native of Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, and holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Galway.