Draft:John Carroll (political administrator)

John Carroll is an Irish political administrator who was head of policy and programme implementation at the Department of the Taoiseach from 2017 to 2020. He had previously been Leo Varadkar's adviser in the Department of Transport. Carroll was "closely involved" in the 2020 government negotiation process. He has been a close adviser to Leo Varadkar and worked him in various capacities for several years. In 2020, Carroll became general secretary of the Fine Gael political party.

Early life and education
John Carroll attended Trinity College Dublin, where he was friends with Leo Varadkar. In addition to his undergraduate degree from Trinity College, Carroll also holds a postgraduate degree from Dublin City University.

Career
Carroll was a parliamentary assistant to Leo Varadkar when Varadkar was first elected as a Teachta Dála (TD), a member of Ireland's lower house, in 2007. In 2011, when Varadkar was appointed Minister for Transport, Carroll became his advisor at the Department of Transport.

Between 2014 and 2017, Carroll was the chief executive officer of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII).

In 2017, when Varadkar became Taoiseach, Carroll left the PRII to become "head of policy and programme implementation" at the Department of the Taoiseach. He was "closely involved in the negotiations on the programme for government with Fianna Fáil and the Greens" in 2020, where he acted as Varadkar's "eyes and ears".

In 2020, Carroll was appointed general secretary of the Fine Gael political party, succeeding Tom Curran. The recruitment process was reportedly managed by the executive search firm Amrop.