The Secretary of the Department of Education and Science, Dr Don Thornhill, has been appointed the new chairman of the Higher Education Authority, which oversees university education. Dr Thornhill will take up the position early next year.
There will be some surprise that Dr Thornhill has accepted the HEA post. His success in making the Department of Education more accountable and more transparent is widely recognised and there was speculation that he might move to head another major government department.
The Minister for Education, Mr Martin, paid tribute to Dr Thornhill's work in education and expressed pleasure that his new job would mean Irish education would "continue to benefit from his expertise for another seven years".
Six new members of the Higher Education Authority were also announced. They are Ms Prisca Grady, an investment executive with the ICC Bank; Dr Patricia Barker, who lectures in the business school at Dublin City University; Dr Maurice Bric, a history lecturer at UCD and a former adviser to Mr Brian Lenihan; Dr Ciaran Murphy, lecturer in management information systems at UCC; and Ms Lorraine Sweeney, chairwoman of the Small Firms Association.
The sixth new member will be the serving president of the Union of Students in Ireland, currently Mr Colman Byrne. He will be replaced by his successor.
The journalist and Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole is among those who has stepped down from the HEA.