Appointments made by the Government to the new Human Rights Commission, set up under the Belfast Agreement, were defended at the weekend by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue.
Mr O'Donoghue said the Government had put in place a commission that would cover as wide a spectrum of interests in the human rights sphere as possible.
Addressing delegates at a human rights conference in Dublin Castle, he added: "Of necessity, that Government decision required that a choice be made by reference to a range of considerations and I believe that the combination of expertise that the people I have named brings to the task will ensure that the public generally, in all its diversity, will be well served in terms of human rights and protection," he said.
His comments followed criticism of the decision to appoint only one of eight commissioners recommended by an independent selection committee set up by the Government.
The criticism came from members of the selection committee itself and non-governmental agencies working in the area of human rights in the State.
Among those appointed to the commission are Prof William Binchy, a TCD law lecturer; Mr Mervyn Taylor, a former Labour party government minister; Ms Olive Braiden, a former director of the Rape Crisis Centre; Mr Robert Daly, a specialist in mental health from Cork; Ms Jane Liddy, a barrister formerly with the European Commission on Human Rights in Strasbourg; Ms Suzanne Egan, a UCD law lecturer specialising in refugee law; Mr Tom O'Higgins, of the development agency Concern; and Ms Fionnuala Ni Aolain, a lecturer in human rights law (who was on the list of eight).
Among those on the list of eight not appointed were representatives of the Traveller movement and the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas.
Ms Inez McCormack, president of ICTU, who was a member of the independent selection committee, told delegates and the Minister she was not angry because of the time spent in shortlisting nominees. "That is not the issue. The issue is this: that if those who need change are not regarded ultimately as able to be fit to sit at the table, then we have a fatally flawed process," she said.
Mr Dermot Nesbitt, Minister, Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, Northern Ireland Assembly, said he did not wish to "pour oil on the fire" by commenting on the appointments to the commission in the Republic other than to say the Government was "rather slow off the mark" in setting up the institution in the South.