Danny O’Hare

A Physical Chemist Dr O'Hare was educated at the CBS Dundalk, UCG and the University of St. Andrews. He was an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University and Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Southampton. Returning to Ireland in 1971, he was Director of the Letterkenny and Waterford Institutes of Technology from 1971 to 1977. He was Founding President DCU from 1977 to 1999. He has been a consultant to OECD, ILO, EU and the World Bank. He has chaired the Beaumont Hospital Board, Food Safety Authority, the Government Task Force on the Physical Sciences, the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, the Information Society Commission, the Ballymun Regeneration project, the Independent Hospitals Association of Ireland and has also served on the Board of Directors of MLE (Media Lab Europe), RHK and Calor. He is Chairman of the Governing Authority of the Milltown Institute, the Dublin Airport Stakeholders Forum and of Exploration Station the National Interactive Science Centre. He is a member of the Board of the Irish Medical Council, of Outreach Moldova, the Daughters of Charity Management Board and of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust.

“The needs of people with intellectual disabilities have not been supported with the diligence and attention that they deserve. The Daughters of Charity and other like minded organisations have done their very best to provide for their needs often without adequate funding from Government. I believe that the impaired ability of these special people to be advocates in their own cause is but one of the reasons. The application of new or advanced technology, though, promises that it can assist them in this respect, helping them towards a more engaged, self directed, active and participative life.

The research community in Ireland and elsewhere has an opportunity to make a very substantial advance in the lives of the intellectually disabled should it choose to do so. This will mean the extension of ICT and other technologies far beyond what they have achieved to date. It is my hope that the research community will rise to this challenge thereby transforming the lives of our most precious people and achieving a goal of true value. There is no greater calling, in my view."

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