David Byrne began his career as a barrister in Ireland in 1970 and became attorney general of Ireland in 1997. As Attorney General, he helped to draft the legislation that set up Ireland's independent Food Safety Authority. In 1999, he was appointed the first European commissioner for health and consumer protection. In this context, he launched a new EU agency, the European Food Safety Authority, to produce authoritative assessments of food related risks. Under David Byrne’s guidance, in May 2000, the Commission adopted a health strategy for the EU. This set out a programme of European level actions, which the Commission planned to finance, as well as a programme of proposed new EU laws, all aimed at protecting and improving the health of EU citizens. He left the European Commission in 2004.