MISS Justice Mella Carroll will chair the new Commission on Nursing, set up as part of the Labour Court recommendation which settled the nurses' dispute.
The commission was part of an £87 million package, including increased pay, which nurses accepted in a ballot completed on February 21st.
The commission will examine and report on nurses' role in the health service.
It will look at the evolving role of nurses, promotional opportunities and related difficulties, necessary structural and work changes, the requirements placed on nurses, education and training and grading.
It will hold its first meeting in the first week of April and produce an interim report in six months. The full report will be made in a year.
Miss Justice Carroll will work full-time on the commission apart from a four-week work commitment in Geneva, the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, said yesterday.
Other commissioners are art time and voluntary.
He said he did not yet know the commission's cost, but it is likely to be £500,000 to £600,000, which includes a consultancy budget.
Miss Justice Carroll will have a secretariat of four, two of them nurses. The commission's secretary is Mr Dermot McCarthy, an assistant secretary in the Department of Health, and another Department employee will be seconded.
Submissions from interested parties, including patients, would soon be sought, Mr Noonan said, and there will be meetings around the country to give nurses access to it and help in the consultation process.
The commission has 14 members other than Judge Carroll, five nominated by the nursing unions. The Minister for Health undertook to nominate two other nursing representatives.