Dr McGovern qualified in Medicine in 1995 from Trinity College Dublin and has worked as a GP specialising in the treatment of substance misuse since the implementation of the methadone treatment protocol in 1998. He is Medical Director of the Priority Medical Clinic, a private addiction treatment programme located in South County Dublin. In January 2022 he was appointed Clinical Lead for the HSE Addiction Services in Louth Meath & The Midlands. Dr McGovern holds a Master’s degree in Clinical and Public Health Aspects of Addiction from The National Addiction Centre, King’s College London and is a Diplomate of the International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM). He is also one of the first members of the International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies (IDHDP) which is an international group of medical addiction experts aiming to promote sensible drug policies. He is a member of the Irish Chapter of the New Nicotine Alliance which advocates smoking harm reduction and believes that smokers who want to quit should have no barriers preventing them from doing so.