The Government is to advise the President to appoint Ms Fidelma Macken SC (above) a High Court judge.
Ms Macken studied law at Trinity College Dublin and the London School of Economics. A graduate of the King's Inns in 1972, she was called to the Inner Bar in 1995 and was elected as a bar bencher the following year.
The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, appointed Ms Macken to conduct a detailed study of all the material and documentation pertaining to the State's defence in the case of Mrs Brigid McCole, the Donegal woman who died as a result of contracting hepatitis C from BTSB blood products. Prior to coming to Government, the coalition parties had promised to publish details of the legal strategy adopted by the State and the BTSB in the highly controversial case of Mrs McCole.
Ms Macken had earlier represented the public interest in the Finlay tribunal into the hepatitis C scandal.
She is the Government's third High Court judge appointment in a week.