Jim Breslin was Secretary General of the new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. In 2011 he led the establishment of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs as its first Secretary General. He was Secretary General of the Department of Health from 2014 to 2020.
He has a Master’s in Public Administration (Mid-Career) from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, MSc (Econ) from Trinity College/Institute of Public Administration and BA in Economics and Politics from UCD. He holds a Policy Leader Fellowship at the Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge.