Born December 2nd, 1956
Died August 26th, 2025
Dr Pat O’Mahony, who has died, was the Kerry-born chairman of the Health and Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) since 2018 and the chairman of the Irish Medicines Verification Organisation (IMVO) since 2019.
O’Mahony who had a long career in the health and regulatory sector, was the chief executive of the Health Products Regulatory Authority (formerly the Irish Medicines Board) from 2002-2015. He was chairman of the management board of the European Medicines Agency from 2007-2011.
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Earlier in his career O’Mahony was chief executive of Clinical Research Development Ireland, a partnership of academic institutions and clinical research facilities, and director of Consumer Protection at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).
At the time of his death, he was adjunct professor at the school of pharmacy at University College Cork. And since 2023 he chaired the expert taskforce to support the expansion of the role of pharmacies in patient care.
Allowing pharmacists to extend prescriptions and recommending that they should be able to prescribe independently within their scope of practice were key changes under his stewardship of the taskforce. He had previously served as deputy secretary general and head of governance and performance at the Department of Health from 2015-2016.
Originally trained as a vet, O’Mahoney started his career in private veterinary practice, moving on to supervise small abattoirs on behalf of local authority veterinary services. He later became chairman of the Belfield Pet Emergency Hospital at University College Dublin (UCD), building relationships between vets in the Greater Dublin Area and UCD. He maintained a strong connection to the Belfield Pet Emergency Hospital throughout his career, only stepping down as chief executive in 2022.
In the early 1990s O’Mahony worked as veterinary adviser and technical services manager for SmithKline Beecham Animal Health Ireland and the UK.
When the FSAI was established in 1996, he was appointed its first chief veterinary officer. At the time consumer and international confidence in Irish food had been badly shaken by the BSE (mad cow disease) crisis.
Doubts lingered about the industry’s commitment to producing safe food and the ability of the regulators to oversee the food chain. O’Mahony played a key role in rebuilding Ireland’s reputation as a producer of good food with robust controls. He later became the director of consumer protection at the FSAI and developed formal contracts with every agency involved in the production and distribution of food from farm to fork.
O’Mahony became chief executive of the then Irish Medicines Board in 2002. In an interview in The Irish Times in 2004, then two years into his role at the IMB, he remarked how he often told new staff not to be disappointed when they met people in the pub who had never heard of their new employer. “Just tell them we try to make sure that medicines on the market are safe for the public,” he told them.
During his tenure, he oversaw the expansion of the role of the board to include regulation of medical devices, cosmetics, blood tissues and cells, organ donation and the use of animals for scientific or educational purposes. With all these extra remits, he also led the initiative to change its name to the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) in 2014.
O’Mahony was aware of the huge role the HPRA had in monitoring, inspecting and approves pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities and the medical device sector in Ireland – both multinational industries with large bases in this country.
Always keen to makes medicines accessible to as many people as possible, he established a reclassification system where pharmaceutical companies could apply to have their medicine moved from prescription only to an over-the-counter product if it was safe to do so.
The erectile dysfunction medication Viagra is one such drug, which became available without prescription in Irish pharmacies under this initiative.
During his time at the helm of the HPRA, he also led the organisation through significant public health issues including the recall of the commonly prescribed antidepressant drug Seroxat, and a ban on the use of poly implant prostheses (PIP) breast implants in Ireland after the French authorities detected they contained nonmedical-grade materials.
O’Mahony was on the management board of the European Medicines Agency from 2003-2015 and was its chairman from 2007-2011.
According to Dr Lorraine Nolan, current chief executive of the HPRA, O’Mahony played a significant role in revision of the EU medical device regulatory system to address gaps and ensure, for example, that safety checks on future implants would prevent defective implants being used in patients again. He was passionate about ensuring a consistent approach across member states to protecting human and animal health.
[ Hiqa board chair remembered as ‘proud Kerry man’ at funeral MassOpens in new window ]
Described by colleagues across the health and regulatory sectors as an inspirational and visionary leader with a keen intellect, O’Mahoney was also renowned for being a strong advocate for public health. He was a good listener and used his wit and charm to disarm, enlighten and inspire colleagues even in tough situations.
Dr Lorraine Nolan described him as a born leader. “He was always visionary with empathy and understanding of the value of people. He was great fun too.”
Another colleague described him as the “the living exemplar of a public servant, always generous with his time, insight, expertise and experience.”
Born the middle child of five of Mary and John O’Mahony in Ardfert, Co Kerry, Pat attended Christian Brothers School in Tralee. He moved to Dublin to study veterinary medicine at University College Dublin, graduating in 1979. He later returned to his alma mater to complete a master’s in business administration in 2001.
He met his wife, Margaret, when they were both teenagers in Kerry. The couple married in 1980 and lived in various parts of Dublin throughout their married life.
He cared for his wife, during her illness until she required full-time residential care in 2021. She died in 2023, leaving a huge void in his life.
In 2022 Pat O’Mahony bought his father’s ancestral home in Banemore, Co Kerry, near his beloved Banna Strand. He set about renovating it with great gusto and enjoyed donning the high-vis jacket to help the builders on site. He also loved gardening and he spent a lot of time fighting the Atlantic winds, which regularly threatened to undo his good work.
He it Hope Cottage in memory of the couple’s last dog, Hope.
While reconnecting with family and making new friends in the locality, O’Mahony also joined the local historical society. At the time of his death, he was looking forward to attending its events as well as continuing to rekindle his love of his native county. “Pat had always planned to retire to Kerry. We had hoped that he would have longer here with us,” says his sister, Mary O’Connell.
Prof O’Mahony is survived by his brother John, sisters Helen, Mary and Bernadette, his brother-in-law Peter and sister-in-law Maureen. He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret.
