For organisations
GAA Event Safety Management Guide
Guidance on holding safe events for every GAA ground in Ireland.
Strategic consulting · Governance · Coaching
Making complicated things make sense.
Governance, strategy and resilience for organisations, and coaching for the conversations that decide careers, all done personally by Sarah Keane.
Sarah was an invaluable sounding board and interview coach for my senior civil service leadership competition. I’ve worked with three different coaches over recent years and she was by far the most helpful.
Two tracks, one consultancy
Whether you lead an organisation or you’re preparing for your next career step, the work starts with a clear conversation.
For organisations
Governance reviews, strategic plans, business continuity plans, and digital and AI change. The clients are boards, public bodies, SMEs, and growing businesses that need an outside pair of hands to bring order to something complex, with a written deliverable at the end.
Four areas of work:
- Governance reviews, an independent look at how your board works, where the gaps are, and what to fix first.
- Strategy development, a clear plan, built with you and grounded in your own evidence.
- Business continuity, ISO 22301-aligned plans that keep you running when something goes wrong.
- Digital and AI for SMEs, practical digital change, and a straight answer on what AI can and can't do for your business.
For individuals
Sarah is a former senior civil servant who came through these competitions as a candidate and interviewed candidates herself in the private sector, so she knows both sides of the table. Most coaching clients are preparing for competency-based competitions: civil service capability interviews, local authority competitions, and panel interviews across the wider public sector.
Four areas of coaching:
- Interview readiness, preparation for competency-based and panel interviews. Mock interviews, written feedback, a usable example bank.
- Civil service applications, application form reviews, online test preparation, and interview coaching for Irish civil service competitions.
- Local authority, application form review and interview coaching for Irish county and city council competitions.
- Public speaking and communication, voice, structure, and presence coaching for keynotes, board presentations, and high-stakes meetings.
Insights
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Latest from the blog
Practical perspectives on governance, resilience, and professional development.
The STAR method: how to answer competency interview questions
How to use the STAR method in Irish civil service and local authority interviews. The task tells the board your own role; the action is where the marks are.
The psychology of shortlisting: how your application form is actually read
Most Irish civil service and local authority competitions shortlist on the application form alone. What the research on assessor behaviour says about how boards actually read and score forms, and what it means for how you write yours.
How to get a job in an Irish county council: grades, applications and interviews
How to get a job in an Irish county or city council: where council jobs are advertised, what Grades III to VII mean, who is eligible, how the application form and competency interview work, and what a panel is.
How to get a job in the Irish civil service: a plain guide
How to get a job in the Irish civil service: where jobs are advertised, which grade to apply for, what each pays, the five stages on publicjobs.ie, how long it takes, and who is eligible.
Assistant Principal 2026 online test results: what your Order of Merit means and what happens next
Assistant Principal 2026 online test results are out. What your civil service Order of Merit means, why you may have two, and what happens next: shortlisting, then interviews.
Clerical Officer in a local authority: the front door grade, and a live campaign in Tipperary
Clerical Officer is the entry grade in every Irish local authority, and you do not need a public sector background to apply. What the grade involves, who is eligible, and how the competition works, using the live Tipperary County Council campaign (closing 4pm, 3 September 2026) as a worked example.
Have a problem worth solving well?
Tell us what you’re facing. The first conversation is confidential, and always free.
Preparing for a competition with a closing date? Start with the coaching pages, or email sarah@dedico.ie.
Get in touch
Meet Sarah
Diplomacy and delivery, in one advisor.
Sarah Keane is a former First Secretary at the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and a senior product manager in technology, now running DEDICO, a Dublin consultancy for governance, strategy, and coaching. She represented Ireland at the EU and UN on human rights, contributed to the National AI Strategy, and led the upgrade of the Passport Service’s facial-recognition technology.
In the private sector she worked on the revamped Ryanair.com for millions of users and built eLearning platforms for global pharmaceutical companies. That mix of deep policy knowledge and commercial pragmatism is what she brings to every engagement.
Sarah believes in direct feedback, delivered with compassion and purpose.
Former Irish diplomatEU & UN human rights
National AI StrategyTechnology deliveryGovernance
Sarah KeaneDirector, DEDICO Ltd.