A Dublin senior counsel is to be appointed by the Government to chair a new benchmarking body, charged with setting pay rates in the public service.
The appointment of Dan O'Keeffe, a specialist in company law, to head the seven-member body is expected to be announced within the next week.
Membership of the new agency is likely to be finalised on Friday this week, following a meeting of the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu)with the Department of Finance.
Ictu and the employers' body, Ibec, will each nominate two members to the pay body, while there will also be two independent members nominated by the Government.
It is understood Ictu had hoped to nominate its former president, Phil Flynn, to the body, but he has decided not to accept the position. Mr Flynn was given the Probation Act at Dublin District Court last month in relation to charges of possession of a pen gun and two tear-gas cartridges.
Former Siptu general secretary Bill Attley, who served on the previous benchmarking body with Mr Flynn, will be one of Ictu's nominations.
The two employers' representatives are expected to be Willie Slattery, chief executive of funds administrator State Street, and former Department of Agriculture secretary general John Malone.
Arts Council chairwoman Olive Braiden and an economist, likely to be former UCD professor of economics Brendan Walsh, will be nominated by the Government, it is understood.
The Government had hoped to appoint a member of the judiciary as chairman of the body, but attempts to find a judge for the role were unsuccessful.
Unions, however, are expected to welcome the appointment of a highly experienced lawyer. Mr O'Keeffe, a barrister since 1964, has been a senior counsel for the past 20 years.
He also specialises in tax law and practises on the Dublin and southwestern circuits.
He will head a body which faces the paintstaking and delicate task over the next 18 months of setting pay rates for the majority of public servants, including TDs.
The previous benchmarking body, chaired by Mr Justice John Quirke, recommended an average pay increase of 8.9 per cent for public servants in July 2002.
The final instalment of that increase was paid last June. Minister for Finance Brian Cowen has warned that the next benchmarking round is unlikely to deliver the same level of increase as the previous one.
Social partnership groups, meanwhile, expect to receive formal Government proposals within days on a structure for a new round of partnership talks.
The structure is of critical importance to Ictu, which wants the issues of exploitation and displacement of jobs addressed in isolation from other matters such as pay.
Once the proposals are issued, Siptu, the State's biggest union, is expected to hold a meeting of its executive council, with a view to reconvening a special conference at the end of the month.
It is anticipated that talks could then begin early next month.
