The Secretary General of the Department of Health and Children Michael Kelly has been removed from his post in the wake of the Travers report into illegal care charges.
Senior officials and special advisors at the Department were heavily criticised in the Travers Report for not informing former Minister for Health Micheál Martin about illegal nursing home charges.
"Absolutely no documentation was made available to me to demonstrate that or to indicate that the minister (Martin) had been fully and adequately briefed by the department on the serious nature of the issues," the report said.
The Government said in a statement Mr Kelly has been named chairman-designate of the Higher Education Authority and will take up his new job once a replacement is found for him next month.
"This appointment is being made in the context of the very significant organisational restructuring which is already well advanced in the Department of Health and Children, and to which Mr Kelly has made a very significant contribution," the statement added.