Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland

The remit of the Advisory Committee is to:

• seek to identify issues affecting the communications and postal sectors in Northern Ireland, both collectively as a Committee and individually for Members, with particular reference to the sectors where they have particular knowledge or expertise
• to provide advice to Ofcom about general and specific issues concerning the communications and postal sectors arising within Northern Ireland
• to provide advice and comment as required on matters brought to the Committee by Ofcom
• to offer comment as appropriate on consultations undertaken by Ofcom
• where requested by the Content Board, to provide specific advice to that Board on matters relating to television, radio and other content on services regulated by Ofcom
• when so requested by the Ofcom Board, to provide advice to the Communications Consumer Panel on matters affecting consumers in Northern Ireland in the communications sector.
• to produce an annual report reflecting issues within the communications and postal sectors in Northern Ireland

7 March 2024

20 June 2024

10 October 2024

5 December 2024

Minutes of the 89th meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 10th October 2023 (PDF File, 161.5 KB)
Published 1 March 2024

Minutes of the 88th meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 20 June 2023 (PDF File, 175.7 KB)
Published 1 December 2023

Minutes of the 87th meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on the 7 March 2023 (PDF File, 171.4 KB)
Published 29 September 2023

Minutes of the 86th meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 6 December 2022 (PDF File, 183.2 KB)
Published 29 September 2023

Minutes of the 85th meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 22nd September 2022 (PDF File, 202.1 KB)
Published 17 January 2023

Minutes of the 84th meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 21 June 2022 (PDF File, 150.5 KB)
Published 21 October 2022

Minutes of the 83rd meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 1 March 2022 (PDF File, 148.4 KB)
Published 21 October 2022

Minutes of the 82nd meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 7 December 2021 (PDF File, 167.1 KB)
Published 21 October 2022

Minutes of the 81st meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 9 September 2021 (PDF File, 163.2 KB)
Published 21 October 2022

Minutes of the 80th meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 8 June 2021 (PDF File, 163.2 KB)
Published 21 October 2022

Minutes of the 79th meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 23 February 2021 (PDF File, 155.9 KB)
Published 21 October 2022

Minutes of the 78th meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 25 November 2020 (PDF File, 156.3 KB)
Published 21 October 2022

Minutes of the 77th meeting of the Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland, held on 9 September 2020 (PDF File, 173.8 KB)
Published 21 October 2022

It is our policy to keep board and committee minutes on our site for two years only. Older minutes can be accessed via the National Archives.

Carrie Matchett (Chair)

Carrie Matchett is a self-employed consultant specialising in governance and strategy. She has over twenty years’ experience working in audience-facing roles for the BBC in Northern Ireland and across the UK. Most recently she led the Northern Ireland office of the BBC Trust, working to ensure that the views of local stakeholders and audiences impacted on major decisions about the BBC, its strategy and services. She has a strong interest in representing consumer interests in the rapidly developing communications sector.

Carrie is a Director of the Orchardville Society, a charity which supports people with learning disability and autism to live, learn and work.

Carrie joined the ACNI on 1 June 2018 and her appointment runs until 31 July 2025.

Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson has more than 30 years’ experience as a CEO, managing director and independent director in the news, digital, creative and media industries. He is the founder of Beech Hill Consultancy Ltd - an international communications and media advisory business.

His previous experience includes being CEO of Isle of Media, the national development agency for the Isle of Man digital and creative economy – where he is now Chair of the Advisory Board.

He spent twelve years as Managing Director at UTV the Northern Ireland ITV licence and sat on the UTV Media plc Executive Board. He represented UTV on the Board of ITV Network Ltd.  Prior to that Michael spent a decade at Sky News in several senior roles including Managing Editor: Sky News Ireland and Head of Newsgathering: Five News.

Michael was a long standing member of the Centres’ Council of the Royal Television Society and is former Chair of both the RTS in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man. He was a founder member of the Irish Film and Television Academy.

Michael joined the ACNI on 1 September 2021 and his appointment runs until 31 August 2027.

Aodhan O'Donnell

Aodhan has over twenty years’ experience working at senior management and CEO level focusing on policy and strategy development, whilst working to represent and secure change for consumers.

Aodhan currently leads Digital Services, EU and International Co-operation unit with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC, Ireland). In this role he leads the CCPC, as the national competent authority for Ireland, contribution to the EU Consumer Protection Network and work in relation to digital regulation. The CPC Network provides a framework for national authorities to monitor and enforce consumer protection law, as well as cooperate on issues where widespread infringements of consumer law may be taking place across Member States. Within this role he has led coordinated actions against major EU wide retailers and online platforms in order to prevent consumer harm.

He is also a Director with Power to Switch, an online service supporting consumers in Northern Ireland in relation to energy bills, energy efficiency and helping them take control of their home energy options. Previously, Aodhan was Director of Policy and Interim CEO with the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland where he led the organisations' statutory role to represent and protect consumer interests across a wide range of markets including postal services.

Aodhan joined the committee on 1 November 2022 and his appointment runs until 31 October 2025.

Colm Murphy

Dr Colm Murphy is a multi-award winning journalist and academic leader.  He is a director of the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), the main industry accrediting body for UK journalism.  He is also a director of the UK’s Journalism Diversity Fund and UK’s £8m Community News Project.  He holds a PhD in public policymaking for digital media growth, an MA in interactive media, and a degree in finance.

He was made a UK National Teaching Fellow, one of the highest accolades in UK university teaching, for his contribution to the development of journalism education internationally. He is also a Principal Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy. He led a £3.6m EU project on the strategic development of the media sector and his work on journalism safety has been used globally.  As Subject Leader in Media at Ulster University he teaches media law, regulation, investigative journalism and digital media strategy.

He was young journalist of the year and he worked for The Sunday Times, was business editor of The Sunday Tribune and made investigative documentaries for RTE.

Colm joined the ACNI on 1 March 2023 and his appointment runs until 28 February 2026.

Paul Wickens

As its Chief Executive, Paul created and led the shared services organisation in the Northern Ireland Civil Service. This provided ICT, HR, payroll, pensions, finance, and other services across the public sector generating more than £300m of cost savings. As government CIO his responsibilities included developing and protecting critical national digital infrastructure, cyber security, the public sector telecoms network and data centres.  

He led the digital transformation programme around nidirect.gov.uk that delivered a digital government to citizens. This included liaising with the government in Estonia (seen as the world leader in public sector digital services) culminating in a concordat to share information, resources and expertise on digital transformation.  

Prior to that, Paul had a strong technical and business background in IT in the private sector. This included being Managing Director of a high-tech startup and a French IT services company in Ireland. He has seen IT, digital and cyber security from both sides of the public/private sector fence and understands the regulatory needs in a fast moving world. He is particularly interested in the concerns and opportunities around artificial intelligence, online safety and autonomous vehicles. Paul is a Visiting Professor at Ulster University Business School.

Paul joined the ACNI on 1 September 2023 and his appointment runs until 31 August 2026.

Jackie Neill

Jackie Neill is one of Northern Ireland’s most experienced radio professionals with profile and contacts across the UK & Ireland.

A broadcasting expert with 30+ years editorial leadership and radio production experience at the BBC, Jackie was the Station Manager of BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle for several years. Based in Belfast, Jackie set up Headgirl Media Ltd in 2020. Since then she has been producing radio programmes, as well as working as a trainer, mentor and consultant across the industry in Northern and Southern Ireland. Outside her media work, Jackie is involved with Special Olympics and has a particular interest in the Learning Disability community in Northern Ireland.

Jackie joined the ACNI on 1 September 2023 and her appointment runs until 31 August 2026.

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As well as the appointed Members of the Advisory Committee, the Content Board Member, and the Communications Consumer Panel Member for the respective Nations are invited to attend Advisory Committee Meetings.

In Northern Ireland this is:

• Richard Hill MBE - Communications Consumer Panel
• Maria McCann - Content Board