Mr McDaid was chief executive of the Legal Aid Board south of the border from 2014 to 2023.

He qualified as a solicitor in Dublin and worked in private practice in Dublin and in Sydney, Australia before joining the Legal Aid Board, where he spent nearly 30 years.

He served as a managing solicitor in a number of its law centres specialising in child care, family law and international protection. He then served as its head of legal operations, with responsibility for its network of law centres and private legal suppliers.

As chief executive, Mr McDaid had responsibility for the provision of its family mediation as well as its legal services.

He is also a board member of Oberstown Campus Detention Centre and of a local community law centre in Ballymun, Dublin.

Mr Mageean is a solicitor from Belfast who spent some time in private practice and almost 10 years working as legal officer with the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), a leading human rights organisation in Northern Ireland.

More recently, he was director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies (IPLS) at Queen’s University Belfast. He is currently Northern Ireland’s chief parole commissioner.

He is a member of the Policing Authority south of the border and also chairs the Public Interest Litigation Support (PILS) Project, which seeks to support strategic litigation in the human rights and equality field.

Both took up appointment on 1 August 2024 for a three-year term until 31 July 2027.