Technically the Taoiseach could do the same - up to 2 senators can be Cabinet ministers so the Taoiseach could just appoint anyone a senator and then make them a minister, but it is rarely done.
I just looked it up, Garrett Fitzgerald appointed Dooge as Foreign Minister in 1981, and it was done another time before that.
And Dooge was one of those experts you read about.
Like lord Frost, except the exact opposite.