Oonagh Buckley has been appointed interim chairperson of An Bord Pleanála, the government has announced.

Buckley, the Deputy Secretary General of the Department of Justice, steps in for former chairman Dave Walsh, who retired in late October, leaving the planning board with just four members.

Buckley will be be appointed to the role through use of ministerial powers.

Buckley was made Deputy Secretary General at the Department of Justice in November 2018. In her role, she is responsible for civil law, which includes immigration, courts and legislation.   

She previously served as Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission, and worked in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Department of the Environment, and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

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In her time in the Department of the Environment, she worked for a number of years on planning policy and legislation and on wildlife conservation.  

She holds a BCL; a LLM in Comparative European Law; a MA in European Studies; and was called to the Bar in 1996.

In 2018 Nuckley completed an MSc in Business from UCD Smurfit School of Business and in 2017 she was appointed an adjunct Professor in Law at UCC.