Two of the highest-ranking female civil servants in the State have applied for the key post of secretary general of the Department of Education and Science (DES), due to be filled within the next month.
The candidates include an assistant secretary at the Department of the Taoiseach, Ms Mary Doyle, and an assistant secretary from the Department of Finance, Ms Brigid McManus.
Surprisingly, only one of the five assistant secretaries in the Education Department has applied for the post - Mr Martin Hanevy, whose responsibilities include finance and buildings.
Another frontrunner is Mr Tom Boland, chief executive officer of the Higher Education Authority.
He is on secondment from the Department where as legal officer he played a pivotal role in framing legislation for special needs education and for the establishment of the residential redress board.
Ms Doyle, who is well known across the upper echelons of the public service, is regarded as a strong contender who has worked closely in the past with the Minister for Education, Ms Hanafin.
Ms McManus is a former adviser to Ms Síle de Valera.
The Government is also due to nominate a new chief executive for the Higher Education Authority (HEA) in coming weeks to replace Dr Don Thornhill, who is also a former secretary of the DES.
In the recent past the DES secretary has traditionally taken the chief executive post at the HEA. But the current secretary general, Mr John Dennehy, has let it be known that he does not wish to be considered for the post.
It is not clear if the Government will replace Dr Thornhill in the short term. The recent OECD report on the third-level sector proposed that the job should be publicly advertised.
It also proposed the abolition of the HEA and its replacement by a new Tertiary Education Authority, taking charge of both the university and institute of technology sectors. The Government has still to respond to this proposal.
The post of DES secretary general is a hugely important one, with the incumbent controlling an annual budget of more than €7 billion. Mr Dennehy, who is also chairman of the OECD Education Committee, exerts great influence on education policy.
