Brendan McDonald was appointed to the position in 2017 but vacated it last January.
Since then business representatives locally have pushed for an appointment to be made in hope of attracting more enterprises to the area.
Minister of State Robert Troy on a visit to Carlow on Friday told KCLR News that certainly having the role filled would help get an anchor tenant in the county in particular and he added that the hiring process is nearing its end:
”We held interviews a number of weeks ago so the position is very close to being filled. This will benefit the region and Carlow. We plan to promote Carlow for an advanced manufacturing facility which will benefit the area greatly. ”