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Damien McCarthy

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This article is about the Irish human resources consultant. For the Irish filmmaker, see Damian McCarthy. For other people of the same name, see the note under See also.

Damien McCarthy is an Irish human resources consultant and entrepreneur, the co-founder and managing director of HR Buddy, an HR consultancy headquartered in Killarney, County Kerry, with offices in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.[1][3][26] He founded the business in 2017 as Killarney HR & Payroll with Michael Spillane, rebranded it in March 2021, and has since added an employer of record service for overseas companies hiring in Ireland and, in 2025, an HR software platform.[1][3][8] He is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).[2]

McCarthy is a frequent commentator on Irish workplace matters. He has written opinion pieces for the Irish Examiner, the Business Post and TheJournal.ie, has been quoted regularly in the Irish Times on employment questions, and has appeared on RTÉ Radio 1, Newstalk and Today FM.[12][13][14][17][21] In June 2026 he launched The HR Buddy Podcast, a weekly show on HR practice for employers.[25]

Early career [edit]

Little has been published about McCarthy's career before he set up his own practice. He is described in the Kerry press and by the All-Ireland Business Foundation as an Associate member of the CIPD, the professional body for HR practitioners in Ireland and the United Kingdom, and the firm's own material refers to him as a "founding partner" of Killarney HR & Payroll.[2][4][11] The business was first listed at Kilcummin, outside Killarney, and later operated from the RDI Hub in Killorglin before taking offices in Killarney town.[4][2][26]

Career [edit]

Killarney HR & Payroll (2017–2021)

McCarthy founded Killarney HR & Payroll in 2017 with Michael Spillane to provide outsourced HR consultancy, compliance documentation such as employment contracts and staff handbooks, on-site HR placements and payroll services to small and medium-sized employers, at first in County Kerry and then nationally.[1][3][4] Silicon Republic and the All-Ireland Business Foundation both list McCarthy and Spillane as the founders; later coverage, including RTÉ, names McCarthy alone.[3][4][1] The firm received Business All-Star accreditation from the All-Ireland Business Foundation in July 2020 and again in 2021.[11][4]

HR Buddy and national expansion

In March 2021 the business was renamed HR Buddy and launched an online HR portal that the Killarney Advertiser described as "Ireland's first HR solution portal", offering employers subscription access to documentation, advice and guidance.[1][2] At the time the company had two employees; in May 2021 it announced plans to create 12 jobs over 18 months, a story carried by Silicon Republic, Radio Kerry and the local press.[2][3] McCarthy said the move followed "a successful pivot in response to an ever-evolving work environment" during the pandemic.[2] A limited company, Hr Buddy Limited, was incorporated on 1 February 2023 with its registered office at The Courtyard, Fair Hill, Killarney, the address the firm still uses as its headquarters.[5][26] In early 2025 HR Buddy opened offices in Limerick and Cork, with McCarthy telling the Limerick Leader that "given the expertise and support needed by businesses throughout the country, it makes sense that we grow our regional bases"; a Dublin office at the Guinness Enterprise Centre followed.[29][26]

Employer of record service

At the end of 2023 HR Buddy launched an employer of record (EOR) service, under which it employs staff in Ireland on behalf of overseas companies that have no Irish entity of their own.[1] In July 2024 the firm said the service had "seen huge growth over 2024 in particular" and announced 20 new jobs across HR, finance, payroll, IT and business development, a story reported by RTÉ News, Silicon Republic and Radio Kerry.[1][6][7] McCarthy said it was "very exciting to step into the international market".[1] By December 2025 he was describing clients in Japan, China, Singapore, Canada, the United States, Scandinavia, the rest of Europe and the United Kingdom.[9] The comparison site Employsome ranks HR Buddy among Irish EOR providers, crediting it with "best local HR depth" and estimating its pricing at about €541 per employee per month.[30]

HR Buddy Manager

In November 2025 the company launched HR Buddy Manager, a software platform for HR administration with rostering, clock-in and clock-out functions with geolocation, document storage, gender pay gap reporting and workplace training modules in areas such as anti-bullying and dignity at work.[8] McCarthy said the system "arose directly from client needs": "Through delivering these solutions to clients over the past number of years, we identified an opportunity to create a bespoke software system that carries out multiple functions for HR professionals."[8] The firm said it expected the platform to be rolled out to more than 2,000 Irish companies by the end of 2026, a company projection.[8] In spring 2026 HR Buddy partnered with Irish Life Wellbeing to make a library of wellbeing content available inside the platform at no extra cost to users.[10]

Commentary and podcast

From 2022 McCarthy became a regular voice on Irish workplace issues. In July 2022 he discussed Generation Z employees on RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime and Newstalk, arguing that "there very definitely is a different set of people management skills required for dealing with Generation Z".[17][18] That autumn he wrote for the Business Post on the right to disconnect and for the Irish Examiner on what he called "Gen Z bashing".[12][13] An HR Buddy survey on annoying email habits was reported by Today FM in December 2022, and a second survey on women's experience of workplace discrimination was covered by the Irish Examiner and Business Post in February 2023.[19][20] He has since written on shared parental leave for TheJournal.ie, on "soft quitting" and on remote working for the Irish Examiner, and is quoted in the Irish Times work section on questions ranging from unpaid trial shifts to pension auto-enrolment.[14][15][16][21][22][23] In 2026 he appeared on Newstalk's The Claire Byrne Show to discuss dealing with a difficult boss.[24]

The HR Buddy Podcast with Damien McCarthy released its first episode on 11 June 2026. It is a weekly show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube in which McCarthy and HR Buddy consultants Colin Ryan and Patrick Scanlon work through topics such as probation periods, workplace investigations and performance management for employers.[25][27] McCarthy had earlier contributed a monthly HR slot to Radio Kerry's In Business programme.[7]

Approach and views [edit]

McCarthy's writing tends to argue that employers should adapt to changes in the workforce rather than resist them, while drawing a firm line around what employers can be expected to solve. He has defended younger workers against what he sees as unfair criticism, and has argued that Ireland's parental leave rules "treat genders differently" in a way that damages women's careers, proposing shared maternity and paternity entitlements.[13][14] He has linked the post-pandemic "quiet quitting" and "soft quitting" trends to "a human reaction to the quick return to the hustle-bustle way of life" after Covid.[15] On remote working he has written that employers should work with staff but that "it is not an employer's responsibility to solve traffic congestion", and he has told the Irish Times that flexibility itself is often the cause of workplace disputes.[16][22] He has described workplace wellbeing as something "within the Government's interest" to treat as a public health matter.[31]

Reception [edit]

McCarthy's profile rests on two things: a regional business that national outlets have reported on at each expansion, and a steady run of media appearances in which he is presented as an HR expert.[1][6][21] Several of the descriptions attached to him originate with the company rather than with independent sources. "Ireland's first HR solution portal" was HR Buddy's own launch language, repeated by local press; the firm's blog describes him as "leading HR & workplace expert" and credits him with coining the term "red-carpet employee" for staff who treat occasional office days as a special occasion, a coinage no third-party outlet has yet picked up.[2][28] A "Top Employer of Record" recognition reported by the Kerry press in December 2025 derives from a listing on the comparison site Anywherer rather than from a competitive award, and Employsome, another comparison site, places the firm ninth among Irish EOR providers.[9][30] The Business All-Star accreditation is an accreditation scheme assessed by the All-Ireland Business Foundation rather than a competitive prize.[11] Job-creation figures announced in 2021 and 2024 are company targets and have not been independently reported as met.[2][1] Against that, his commentary appears in the country's main newspapers under his own name and in reader-advice columns, where journalists select him as a source, and his positions on remote work have drawn coverage precisely because they cut against popular sentiment.[15][16][21][23]

Recognition [edit]

See also [edit]

Not to be confused with Damian McCarthy (Irish filmmaker, born 1981), Damien McCarthy (Irish spirits industry executive) or other people of the same name.

References [edit]

  1. "HR consultancy firm HR Buddy to create 20 jobs". RTÉ News, 18 July 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  2. Michelle Crean, "HR Buddy announces creation of 12 jobs". Killarney Advertiser, 29 May 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  3. Jenny Darmody, "Kerry company HR Buddy to expand, creating 12 new roles". Silicon Republic, 24 May 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  4. "HR Buddy – Business All-Star profile". All-Ireland Business Foundation. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  5. "Hr Buddy Limited – company number 734188". SoloCheck, from Companies Registration Office records. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  6. Laura Varley, "HR Buddy to create 20 new jobs in the next 12 months". Silicon Republic, 18 July 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  7. "Killarney based HR Buddy to create 20 jobs". Radio Kerry, 18 July 2024; and "In Business – August 12th, 2021". Radio Kerry, 13 August 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  8. "HR Buddy aims to slash HR admin time". Killarney Advertiser, 14 November 2025. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  9. "HR Buddy named Top Global Employer of Record provider". Killarney Advertiser, 6 December 2025. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  10. John O'Mahony, "Content at no extra cost on HR Buddy platform". KillarneyToday.com, 31 March 2026. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  11. "Second All-Star Award for HR Buddy". Killarney Advertiser, 11 July 2021; and "Q&A with Damien McCarthy of All-Star accredited HR Buddy". All-Ireland Business Foundation, 28 July 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  12. Damien McCarthy, "Investment in learning how to disconnect, and reconnect, will benefit everyone". Business Post, 10 September 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  13. Damien McCarthy, "The Gen Z bashing is getting out of hand". Irish Examiner, 12 October 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  14. Damien McCarthy, "Opinion: Shared maternity and paternity leave rights could end discrimination against working mothers". TheJournal.ie, 6 August 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  15. Damien McCarthy, "Is 'soft quitting' to be taken seriously? Or is it just another hash-taggable work trend?". Irish Examiner, 3 February 2025. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  16. Damien McCarthy, "Remote working: Employers should work with staff but they cannot solve traffic jams". Irish Examiner, 5 January 2026. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  17. "Are Gen Z Bad Workers?". Drivetime, RTÉ Radio 1, 11 July 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  18. Michael Staines, "OK Zoomer – Employers need to adapt to the demands of Gen Z". Newstalk, 11 July 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  19. Caoimhseach Connolly, "'Happy Friday!' Named Most Annoying Email Habit Of The Year". Today FM, 9 December 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  20. Emer Walsh, "Survey finds one in three female workers experience gender-based discrimination". Irish Examiner, 7 February 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  21. "Your work questions answered: Can bars and restaurants still offer 'unpaid trial' shifts?". Irish Times, 3 July 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  22. Jack White, "What were the key workplace trends HR experts saw in 2024?". Irish Times, 19 February 2025. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  23. Emmet Malone, "More than 29,000 Irish workers opt out of pension auto-enrolment during two-month window". Irish Times, 3 September 2026. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  24. "Dealing with a bad boss!". The Claire Byrne Show, Newstalk, 4 June 2026. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  25. "The HR Buddy Podcast with Damien McCarthy". Apple Podcasts; and Spotify. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  26. "Contact us". HR Buddy. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  27. "Damien McCarthy, Author at HR Buddy". HR Buddy. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  28. "The Red-carpet employee". HR Buddy blog, 5 January 2026. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  29. Nick Rabbitts, "Human resources consultancy company 'Buddy's' up in Limerick with new opening". Limerick Leader, 3 February 2025. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  30. "Best Employer of Record in Ireland (2026)". Employsome. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  31. Colette Sheridan, "Employers say worker wellness will be key for 2024". Irish Examiner, 18 December 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2026.

External links [edit]

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