For organisations
GAA Event Safety Management Guide
Guidance on holding safe events for every GAA ground in Ireland.
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, and business continuity plans. 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.
- 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.
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 at every grade: civil service capability interviews from Clerical Officer to Assistant Secretary, local authority competitions from Grade III to Director of Services, and panel interviews across the wider public sector.
- 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.
Latest from the blog
Practical perspectives on governance, resilience, and professional development.
Anatomy of a career change
Sarah Keane on changing career three times, into and out of the civil service: seniority, grades, salary, moving in either direction and what to ask first.
Software Developer, Senior ICT Specialist 2026: how the civil service competition works
Senior ICT Specialist (HEO) software developer competition closes 3pm, 11 November 2026. Eligibility, what the board marks, and how to show more than code.
What the Revolut outage shows about your business's core dependencies
Revolut's 20 October 2026 outage traced back to a Google Cloud data centre. How to map the external systems your business relies on, and plan for losing them.
Assistant Principal roles in State agencies: how specialist AP competitions differ
Five specialist Assistant Principal jobs in State agencies close 22 October to 16 November 2026. Why the framework can differ from AP 2026, and how to adjust.
Governance, risk and compliance roles in Irish State bodies: showing your own judgement on the form
Six governance, risk and compliance roles in Irish State bodies close 29 October to 16 November 2026. What boards assess, and how to show your own judgement.
HEO online assessments 2026: what happens next
Done the HEO 2026 online assessments? Results are due at the end of November. What happens next, and how to prepare for interview in the meantime.
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 touchDiplomacy 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.