John Moran has been appointed secretary general of the Department of Finance. Mr Moran was second secretary of the department and was in charge of banking.
He joined the department in March last year, having previously worked in the Central Bank and in financial group Zurich.
As head of the department's banking division, Mr Moran led the negotiations on the sale of shares of Bank of Ireland to private investors.
Mr Moran will be paid €200,000, which is within the Government's salary cap. There were 21 candidates for the position.
New unit aimed at beefing up policy analysis
The Government has decided to set up a new division aimed at providing improved economic and policy analysis to government departments.
The Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) will initially recruit 20-30 staff, both internally and externally.
The staff are expected to be brought in from May onwards. They will spend a training period in the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform before being seconded to other departments as necessary.
Public Expenditure & Reform Minister Brendan Howlin said the new unit's work would help departments to evaluate policy and spending options, conduct value for money analyses and deal with regulatory and competition issues.
