THE deputy senior legal assistant in the Attorney General's Office, Mr Arthur F. Plunkett, has been appointed to the Law Reform Commission. He is one of four people nominated by the Government to fill vacancies on the commission.
Mr Plunkett is the only full-time member to be appointed to the commission. One of the most experienced legal advisers in the state service, he will act in a part-time capacity until the end of June, becoming a full-time member from July 1st next.
Dr Turlough O'Donnell QC, a retired Lord Justice of Appeal in Northern Ireland, will serve as a part-time member. However, unlike the other appointees, who will serve until April, 2002, his term of office will expire in August, 1999. A former chairman of the Northern Ireland Bar Council, he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1979.
The other part-time appointees are Ms Patricia T. Rickard Clarke, a solicitor, and Ms Hilary Anna Delaney BL, a law lecturer at the University of Dublin and the editor of Irish Law Reports Monthly. Ms Rickard Clarke is a partner in the law firm McCann Fitzgerald and formerly worked in the Institute of Public Administration.
The new appointees replace Judge John F. Buckley, Prof William Duncan, Ms Maureen Gaffney and Ms Simon O'Leary. The commission's president, Mr Justice Anthony Hederman, will continue to serve in the post until his term of office expires next October.