Ms Anne Looney has been appointed chief executive of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the advisory group to the Minister for Education.
A Dubliner, she was educated in St Paul's Secondary School, Greenhills.
She is a graduate of the Mater Dei Institute of Education, where she also did her Masters degree.
She was a teacher of Religious Education and English in Assumption Secondary School, Walkinstown, Dublin, from 1984-1997.
Following a number of years of part-time work for the NCCA on religious education and social personal and health education, Ms Looney joined the staff of the NCCA on a full-time secondment in 1997.
She succeeds Mr Albert O Ceallaigh.
