The Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone, has been appointed as the Government's Special Envoy for Ireland's candidature for election to the UN Security Council.
The appointment by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, runs until June 2020.
The UN General Assembly will then chose from four candidate states seeking to fill two rotating seats at the organisation's top.
In a statement, Mr Coveney's department said the Republic's candidature for a seat was officially launched by the Taoiseach at UN Headquarters in New York last July.
He said all ministers are seeking every available opportunity to promote it, making "the case for the strong and independent role Ireland would play on the Security Council" based on the Republic's track record during more than 60 years of UN membership.
Canada and Norway are the other states contesting the two available seats, which are set aside for the "Western European and Others" group.
Ireland has previously served on the Security Council in 2001-2002, 1981-1982 and for one year in 1962.
The statement says Minister Zappone has already promoted Ireland's candidature during numerous bilateral and multilateral meetings, and that she has addressed the Security Council on a number of occasions since 2017. One of her topics was Children and Armed Conflict.
The statement says her new engagement "will take on an enhanced and deepened emphasis over the remaining period of the campaign before the vote in the UN General Assembly in June 2020".
She will attend the Children's Summit at the UN headquarters in New York next week.
