Through his consulting work with Build Geothermal Limited, Rory supports the growth of Ireland\u2019s geothermal industry by providing geoscience, operations, and project management expertise. He previously led key components of the Geological Survey of Ireland\u2019s National Geothermal Database Project and is a co-creator of the National Geothermal Summit, helping to build the foundation for increasing geothermal development nationwide.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_blurb title=\"Joe Ireland - Vice Chair \" image=\"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Joe_Ireland_GAI.jpg\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"]Joe Ireland is committed to advancing geothermal energy as a cornerstone of sustainable infrastructure, bridging the gap between technical innovation, policy vision, and long-term investment value.<\/p>\n As Business Development Manager at GeoServ Ltd, Joe leads market-making and business development initiatives focused on transforming geothermal systems into infrastructure-grade, investor-backed assets for renewable heating, cooling, and energy storage. His work supports the decarbonisation of critical sectors such as airports, pharmaceuticals, data centres, mixed-use developments, and the agri-food industry, helping clients achieve enduring ESG outcomes, energy independence, and security.[\/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_blurb title=\"Sandra Bolanos Benitez - Secretary\" image=\"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sandra_Bolanos_Benitez_GAI.jpg\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"]Sandra is an enthusiastic Environmental Scientist with experience in both consultancy and academia in Ireland and abroad. She holds a PhD in Environmental Technologies and driven by her passion for sustainable solutions, she completed a certification on Climate Resilience for Business. Her professional experience includes geoenvironmental risk assessment, hydrogeology, wetland restoration and sustainability-focus projects encompassing circular economy, biodiversity and renewable energy. Sandra joined the GAI as secretary, where she supports the growth and development of the sector.[\/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_blurb title=\"Dr. Aoife Braiden - Committee Member \" image=\"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Aoife_Braiden_GAI.jpg\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"]Aoife started her geoscience career in Galway and after completing her PhD in UCD chose to focus her career on research management. In 2014 she established RML Ltd, a company that specialises in supporting research and researchers across the whole life cycle of research funding and projects, where she is now Managing Director. For 10 years she has managed the Geological Survey Ireland Research Programme and associated activities. RML is currently leading on the Communications and Engagement, and Education and Training, work in the GEMINI geothermal project, as well as ensuring greater impact from research projects across the geosciences.[\/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_blurb title=\"Paul Stafford - Committee Member \" image=\"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Paul_Stafford_GAI.jpg\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" custom_padding=\"||0px|||\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"]<\/p>\n Paul is a Senior Geologist with Geological Survey Ireland (GSI), currently working on the GEMINI project, which focuses on developing geothermal demonstrator sites across Ireland and Northern Ireland, alongside national resource characterisation efforts. A Chartered Geologist (PGeo) and European Geologist (EurGeol), Paul has over a decade of experience spanning both the conventional and renewable energy sectors. He brings a deep technical understanding of the subsurface and a strong commitment to advancing Ireland\u2019s geothermal capability.<\/p>\n Paul has worked on several major geothermal research projects, including GEONORM, RESULT, GEOURBAN, and GEOFRAME, focusing on geothermal resource assessment, data integration, and project development.<\/p>\n In addition to geothermal, Paul has also contributed to the growth of Ireland\u2019s offshore wind industry, supporting a variety of offshore wind development projects.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_blurb][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=\"1\" _builder_version=\"4.23.3\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_row _builder_version=\"4.23.3\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_column type=\"4_4\" _builder_version=\"4.23.3\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Who We AreRory Dunphy is an experienced Geoscience and Business Manager with over 20 years in the energy industry, now dedicated to advancing Ireland\u2019s geothermal sector. As Chair of the Geothermal Association of Ireland, Rory brings a wealth of expertise in organisational leadership, stakeholder engagement, strategy definition, and policy development. Through his consulting work with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":11,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"\r\n \t
![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Photo-11.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\n\r\nRefer to GAI Committees 1998 - 2013<\/a>\u00a0for reference to all those who have participated on the committees of the Geothermal Association of Ireland since its beginnings in 1998.\r\n\r\nRic Pasquali<\/strong>, Chairperson of the GAI. Ric is a Professional Geologist with over 18 year experience in consultancy, project management and project development. Ric has a degree and a master in geology from Trinity College Dublin. Following graduation Ric worked as a geologists at Eugene Daly Associates before joining SLR Consulting in 2005, GT Energy in 2009 and setting up GeoServ. His core areas of expertise include geology, geothermal energy (shallow and deep), environmental geology and energy efficiency. Ric has advised local authorities, government agencies as well as private sector clients on geothermal energy resource assessment and development solutions, regulatory and legislative frameworks as well as providing project management services during exploration and development stages.\r\n\r\nJames Byrne<\/strong>, Treasurer and Vice-Chair of GAI. James Byrne is the founder and chairman of the Sirus Group. He began his career in the family engineering business and went on to study HVAC technology in Bolton Street College (now DIT). He spent a number of years in the early 80s working as a consultant designing HVAC systems and during this period elected to specialise in the application of Building Management Systems (BMS). His interest in BMS, HVAC and energy has led him to establish a number of companies over the past 25 years dealing with many aspects of building technology. He led one of these companies to win the SEAI Sustainable Energy Innovation Award in 2012, has led Sirus in EU FP7 projects.\r\n\r\nGareth Ll. Jones<\/strong>\u00a0(EurGeol, BSc, MSc, PGeo) is the Vice Chairman and Newsletter Editor of the GAI. He qualified with an Honours BSc in Geology from Queens University Belfast and was awarded his MSc by Trinity College Dublin. His geological consultancy Conodate deals with geothermal energy, karst, industrial minerals and biostratigraphy. Gareth is a Geothermal Consultant with the CSA Group and Convener of the Expert Panel on Geothermal Energy of the EFG. He was President of the EFG from 1999-2002 and of the IGI from 2005-2007. Gareth was Project Manager of the GT Skills geothermal training programme from 2005-2007.\r\n
![Committee Photo at AGM June 2011 in IKEA <\/a><\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-96","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3788,"href":"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/96\/revisions\/3788"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/dev.geothermalassociation.ie\/wp\/GAI%202011%20committee%20photo.JPG\"){kind=link}