THE GOVERNMENT has appointed Paul Coffey SC as the new chairman of the State's examination of a case for a reopened inquiry into the Stardust fire disaster.
The appointment was confirmed last night in a statement from Taoiseach Brian Cowen's department.
It came following a day-long protest held in the Dáil by two members of the victims' committee, who were concerned that the position would not be filled until the Dáil resumed in late September.
While a spokesman in the Taoiseach's department said that was never going to be the case - and that the appointment was to be made official this week - the announcement was brought forward to yesterday.
John Gallagher SC was chosen to chair the independent examination in April 2007. However, he stood down in May this year following the discovery by the Stardust families that he represented gardaí as a junior counsel during the inquests held following the 1982 inferno.
When this information emerged in March this year, the victims' committee withdrew their co-operation. Mr Gallagher accepted that he had represented members of the Garda at the inquest but that the involvement was unrelated to the fire.
In one of his last acts as taoiseach, Bertie Ahern informed the families in a letter dated May 6th that he was arranging for a process to begin to "identify an alternate person . . ."
Yesterday, two committee members, Antoinette Keegan and Gertrude Barrett, participated in a "sit-in" in Leinster House for several hours. Both said they were frustrated by the delay in announcing a new chair.
"They are wearing us down. We are not leaving here today until we have some kind of a commitment that a person has been appointed," said Ms Keegan.
Meanwhile, in a written reply to the Independent TD Finian McGrath this week, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern disclosed that total expenditure on the examination to date had been €760,000, of which €300,000 has been provided to the families' committee for legal and other costs.