The Cabinet has accepted the recommendations of the Public Appointments Service (PAS) for the appointment of six candidates to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC). 

Roderic O’Gorman (Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth) said that the candidates being approved brought a range of expertise and perspective to support the protection of human rights and equality in Ireland.

New appointees

Appointed to IHREC, Ireland’s national human-rights institution and equality body, are:

• Dr Andrew Forde, a senior civil servant with extensive national and international human rights experience,
• Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, an international human-rights lawyer and barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London, who is current Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, and an adjunct professor at UCD Sutherland School of Law,
• Colin Harvey, a professor of human-rights law at Queen’s University Belfast, and Director of the Human Rights Centre,
• Eoin Ronayne, chair of Waterford Area Partnership Company and special projects adviser at Fórsa, with a background as a senior trade-union official,
• Noeline Blackwell, a solicitor, litigator advocate and manager with a wide experience of human-rights standards, operations, practices and challenges, who is current chief executive of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and was DG of FLAC (2005-2016), and
• Dr Salome Mbugua, an IHREC Commission member since 2018 with extensive experience in leadership and senior management, and a founder of two equality-based organisations, AkiDwA and Wezesha.