Fergus Finlay (born 1 June 1950)[1] is the former Chief Executive of the charity Barnardos in Ireland, leaving the post in 2018.
Having worked in government press secretarial roles in the 1980s, Finlay served as an adviser to Dick Spring from 1983 to 1997.
During this time he was involved in campaigns that led to the election of Mary Robinson as president, a large increase in the number of Labour TDs in 1992 and the dropping of the constitutional ban on divorce in 1996.
In 1997 he also started presenting the Network 2 show Later On 2 with Frank Dunlop former Press Secretary of Fianna Fáil.
In April 2010 the Sunday Business Post said he is "one of the great backroom operators of Irish political history, a strategist, tactician, and media briefer par excellence."