The chairman of the inquiry, Mr Justice Henry D. Barron, is a former Supreme Court judge with a strong academic record and a vast experience serving on the bench.
A High Court judge since 1982, Mr Justice Barron became the first member of the Jewish faith to be appointed to the Supreme Court in 1997. He retired from the Court in May 2000, five months before taking up his appointment as sole member of the Commission of Inquiry. In doing so, he replaced Mr Justice Liam Hamilton after the latter resigned on health grounds less than one year into the brief.
Aged 73, Mr Justice Barron was educated at Castle Park School, Dalkey, Co Dublin; St Columba's College, Rathfarnham; and Trinity College, Dublin, where he won a moderatorship in legal science and from where he graduated with first class honours in 1950. He was called to the Bar in 1951 and took silk in 1970. Living in Dublin, he is married with four children.