Pippa Hackett  Pippa Hackett is an Irish Green Party politician who has been appointed on 27 June 2020 as a Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture with responsibility for Land Use and Biodiversity. She is a Super Junior Minister, meaning she attends Cabinet but does not have a vote. She was elected unopposed to the Agricultural Panel of Seanad Éireann in a by-election on 1 November 2019. The vacancy was caused by the election of Grace O'Sullivan to the European Parliament in May 2019. She is a former member of Offaly County Council. She joined the Green Party in around 2016, upon the recommendation of a neighbour of hers, Christopher Fettes, the party founder. She was the unsuccessful Green party candidate for the Laois–Offaly constituency at the 2020 general election, being eliminated in the final round 4,255 votes behind the candidate above her. Hackett is from Ballindine, County Mayo. During her time in Britain, she studied Equine Science at Aberystwyth University and Agriculture at the University of Essex. Back in Ireland, she studied Graduate Equine Science at University College Dublin, and gained her PhD in Sports Biomechanics at the University of Limerick. Hackett lives on a farm in County Offaly near Geashill with her husband Mark, whom she met at university in Essex, and their four children. Her husband, Mark Hackett, was co-opted to take her seat on Offaly County Council.