New UCD Plant Health for Inspectors programme graduates it’s first students
Monday, 9 June, 2025
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The first group of 30 students graduated from the Plant Health for Inspectors programmes at the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine, Backweston Campus.
This Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine UCD co designed course was tailored specifically by UCD for agriculture inspectors in Ireland.
This first group of 30 graduates completed their final assignment today with a poster presentation at the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine, Backweston Campus.
The winning poster titled A New Plant Health Research Programme for Ireland was by presented by Niall Walsh and was developed by the team of Michael Keane, Niall Walsh and Michael McHugh.
The runner up poster was Quantifying the national capital value of plants considering the economic, environmental and social benefits by John Eivers, Eoin Curran and Matthew Kehoe.
30 DAFM students graduated from the programmes and were awarded their Certificates of Completion by Prof. Olaf Schmidt Head of Environmental and Sustainable Resource Management at UCD and Dr. Fiona Lawlor, Head of Executive Education UCD.
The course
UCD Horticulture in Environment and Sustainable Resource Management (ESRM) launched this Executive Education Program on Plant Health for Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Inspectors.
The collaborative programme focuses on practical, theoretical and academic aspects of implementation of Irelands National Strategy for Plant Health and the suite of EU Plant Health Regulations in force in Ireland.
Dr. Noeleen Smyth is the Academic Programme Co-Ordinator for this new programme and is also programme Director for the BSc in Horticulture.
Louise Byrne; Chief Plant Health Officer, Director of Food and Feed Safety, Plant Health & Crop Policy at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine congratulated the students on taking this opportunity and giving their time to invest in developing their skills and knowledge in the area and in this exciting new programme.
