Kerry man and public relations (PR) specialist Brian Purcell has been appointed as the new special adviser to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon.

Purcell was raised in the family pub in the north Kerry village of Ballyduff and spent his summers working in the Kerry Group factory in Listowel.

His late father, Brendan, who ran The Village Inn with the family, was also a small beef farmer.

After attaining a degree in environmental science, Brian Purcell started his career as a marine biologist on what was then Europe’s biggest salmon farm off the coast of south Kerry, which was owned by the ESB.

He then moved to research in freshwater fisheries before working on developing suitable rivers in the south west of the country for angling tourism.

Since 1999, Purcell has worked in PR and media relations across the agriculture; corporate; financial; health; transport and sport sectors.

His broadcast experience includes working local radio with Radio Kerry and on business podcasts.

He also previously appeared as a judge on the Irish version of the TV show, The Apprentice.

Brian Purcell is due to take up his new role as a ministerial special adviser next week.

In January, Fine Gael TD Martin Heydon was confirmed as the new Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, succeeding Fianna Fáil's Charlie McConalogue.

Minister Heydon comes from a beef farm in Co. Kildare and is also a TD for the Kildare South constituency, first elected in 2011.

In July 2020 he was appointed as Minister of State with special responsibility for research and development, farm safety and new market development at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The minister previously served as a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and was a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action, which produced the cross party report on climate action Climate Change: A Cross- Party Consensus for Action.

He has also served on Oireachtas committees on arts, heritage, regional, rural, Gaeltacht affairs, and petitions.