THE Government is expected to announce the appointment of Ms Evelyn Owens as chairwoman of the new National Enterprise Centre later today.
Provision for the centre was made in Partnership 2000, largely at the insistence of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Its mandate will be to promote the involvement of employers and unions in the partnership approach to workplace change.
It will monitor developments nationally and internationally, provide technical assistance to organisations developing partnership with employees and provide training for management and union representatives.
Ms Owens, who is chairwoman of the Labour Court, has been involved in resolving - a series of major disputes that threatened to overturn national agreements. The highest profile recent dispute in which she intervened was the threatened nurses' strike.
Two full time senior executives are also to be appointed to the centre.
They are the general secretary of the Civil and Public Service Executive Union, Mr John O'Dowd and the former president of the Irish Business Executive Confederation, Mr Gerry Grogan. Mr Grogan is a director of the Smurfit group and former managing director of Player Wills.