A process to appoint a permanent secretary general to the Department of Justice is expected to be under way by the end of the year.

Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald’s department has been without a secretary general, the most senior civil servant in a government department, since 2014.

The position became vacant when Brian Purcell sought a transfer to another Civil Service branch following a report by Kevin Toland, the chief executive of the Dublin Airport Authority, which criticised how the Department of Justice was being run. Since then Noel Waters has been acting secretary general, and Ms Fitzgerald said he was "doing an extremely good job".

Previous efforts to find a permanent successor to Mr Purcell failed.

Ms Fitzgerald said the department would “shortly” look at starting a new process to fill the position, and sources said this would likely happen by the end of the year.

“We’ll have to see what process we will use to deal with it,” the Tánaiste said.