| Government of Ireland | |
|---|---|
| Irish:Rialtas na hÉireann | |
 | |
| Overview | |
| Established | 29 December 1937 |
| Country |  Ireland |
| Polity | Unitary parliamentary republic |
| Leader | Taoiseach |
| Appointed by | President of Ireland on successful nomination fromDáil Éireann[1] |
| Ministries | 18[2] (list) |
| Responsible to | Oireachtas Éireann |
| Annual budget | €10.5 billion (2024)[3] |
| Headquarters | Government Buildings, Merrion Street,Dublin |
| Website | www www |
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Administrative geography | ||||||||
TheGovernment of Ireland (Irish:Rialtas na hÉireann) is theexecutive authority ofIreland, headed by theTaoiseach, thehead of government. The government – also known as thecabinet – is composed ofministers, each of whom must be a member of theOireachtas, which consists ofDáil Éireann andSeanad Éireann. Ministers are usually assigned agovernment department with aportfolio covering specificpolicy areas although provision exists for the appointment of aminister without portfolio.
The taoiseach must benominated by the Dáil, the House of Representatives, from among its members. Following the nomination of theDáil, thepresident of Ireland formally appoints thetaoiseach. The president also appoints members of the government on the nomination of thetaoiseach and their approval by theDáil. The taoiseach nominates one member of the government astánaiste, the deputy head of government. Like the taoiseach, the tánaiste and theminister for finance must be members of the Dáil.
The government is dependent on the Oireachtas to passprimary legislation and as such, the government needs to command a majority in theDáil to ensure support and confidence for budgets and the passage of government legislation.
The35th government of Ireland entered office on 23 January 2025 withMicheál Martin, leader ofFianna Fáil, asTaoiseach, andSimon Harris, leader ofFine Gael, asTánaiste. It is acoalition government ofFianna Fáil,Fine Gael and a group of independent TDs, and was formed after negotiations following ageneral election in December 2024.[4]
Membership of the cabinet is regulated by Article 28 of theConstitution of Ireland and by theMinisters and Secretaries Acts 1924 to 2020.[5] The Constitution requires the government to consist of between seven and fifteen members,[6] all of whom must be a member of theOireachtas.
Since the formation of the12th government of Ireland in 1966, all Irish cabinets have been formed with the constitutional maximum of fifteen ministers. The total sometimes falls below this number for brief periods following the resignation of individual ministers or the withdrawal of a party from a coalition.
No more than two members of the cabinet may be members ofSeanad Éireann.[7] All other members of the cabinet must be members ofDáil Éireann, the house of representatives. TheTaoiseach, Tánaiste andMinister for Finance must be members of the Dáil.[8] In practice, however, the members of the cabinet are invariably members of the Dáil. Since the adoption of the 1937 Constitution, only two ministers have been appointed from the Seanad:Seán Moylan who served in 1957 asMinister for Agriculture andJames Dooge who served asMinister for Foreign Affairs from 1981 to 1982.[9]Joseph Connolly, a member of theFree State Seanad, had served in theExecutive Council of the Irish Free State[9] from 1932 to 1933 asMinister for Posts and Telegraphs, and from 1933 to 1936 asMinister for Lands and Fisheries.
A member of the government in charge of aDepartment of State is designated a minister of the Government (before 1977 this position was termedMinister of State).[10] For distinction,Ministers of State (known before 1977 asParliamentary Secretaries) – informally called junior ministers – are not Ministers of the Government, but assist those ministers in their departments. Aminister without portfolio may be appointed to the Government who is not the head of a Department of State; this occurred during the period known in Ireland asthe Emergency whenFrank Aiken served asMinister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures from 1939 until 1945.[11] The functions of government ministers arefrequently transferred between departments duringcabinet reshuffles or after elections. On occasion, a department of state will cease to exist, its functions being transferred to another department. Such defunct ministerial positions include the Ministers forLabour,Posts and Telegraphs,Public Service andSupplies.
Non-members have no voting rights at cabinet but may otherwise participate fully, and normally receive circulated cabinet papers on the same basis as a full member of government. Votes are rare, however, with the cabinet usually following the Taoiseach or working by consensus.
The government is advised by theAttorney General, who is not a member of the government, but who participates in cabinet meetings as part of their role as legal advisor to the government.
TheChief Whip may attend meetings of the cabinet, but is not a member of the government.[12] In addition, the government can select otherMinisters of State who may attend cabinet meetings. Up to three Ministers of State who regularly attend cabinet meetings may receive an allowance.[13][14] This person is informally known as a "super junior minister".[12] Ministers of state attending cabinet in the 35th government areMary Butler,Hildegarde Naughton,Noel Grealish, andSeán Canney.Trinity College Dublin law professor Oran Doyle has argued that this practice breachescabinet confidentiality as required by the Constitution.[15] In January 2025, opposition TDsPa Daly andPaul Murphy challenged the attendance of ministers of state at cabinet.[16][17]
A new government is formed by the taoiseach appointed after each general election after receiving thenomination of the Dáil. All members of the government are deemed to have resigned on the resignation of the taoiseach. Therefore, a new government is appointed where there is a new taoiseach within a single Dáil term. The Constitution allows a Dáil term of no more than seven years, but a shorter period may be specified by law; this has been set as a maximum of five years. The taoiseach may at any time advise the president todissolve the Dáil, prompting a new general election.[18]
The taoiseach must retain the confidence of Dáil Éireann to remain in office. If the taoiseach ceases "to retain the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann", the taoiseach must resign unless they seek a dissolution of the Dáil which is granted by the president. This applies only in cases of amotion of no confidence or loss of supply (rejection of a budget), rather than the defeat of the government in other legislation or Dáil votes. The president retains absolute discretion to refuse to grant a dissolution to a taoiseach who has lost the confidence of the Dáil.[19] To date, no President has refused the request of a Taoiseach to dissolve the Dáil.
The taoiseach can direct the president todismiss or accept the resignation of individual ministers. When the taoiseach resigns, the entire government is deemed to have resigned as a collective. However, in such a scenario, according to the Constitution, "the Taoiseach and the other members of the government shall continue to carry on their duties until their successors shall have been appointed".
On the dissolution of Dáil Éireann, ministers who were TDs cease to be members of the Oireachtas. However, the Constitution also provides that "the members of the Government in the office at the date of a dissolution of Dáil Éireann shall continue to hold office until their successors shall have been appointed".[20]
Where the resignation of the taoiseach and government is not immediately followed by the appointment by the president of a new taoiseach on the nomination of the Dáil, the outgoing government continues as acaretaker government to "carry out their duties until their successors have been appointed". This has happened when no candidate was nominated for taoiseach when the Dáil first assembled after a general election, or, on one occasion, where a taoiseach had lost the confidence of the Dáil, but there was not a dissolution of the Dáil followed by a general election.
| Date of resignation | Taoiseach | Caretaker government | Date of new government | Taoiseach | Incoming government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 June 1989[21] | Charles Haughey | Fianna Fáil | 12 July 1989[22] | Charles Haughey | Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats |
| 14 December 1992[23] | Albert Reynolds | Fianna Fáil | 12 January 1993[24] | Albert Reynolds | Fianna Fáil–Labour |
| 18 November 1994[25] | Albert Reynolds | Fianna Fáil | 15 December 1994[26] | John Bruton | Fine Gael–Labour–Democratic Left |
| 10 March 2016[27] | Enda Kenny | Fine Gael–Labour | 6 May 2016[28] | Enda Kenny | Fine Gael–Independent |
| 20 February 2020[29] | Leo Varadkar | Fine Gael–Independent | 27 June 2020[30] | Micheál Martin | Fianna Fáil–Fine Gael–Green Party |
The government of Ireland is both thede jure andde facto executive authority in Ireland. This is in contrast to some other parliamentary regimes, where the head of state is the nominal chief executive, though bound by convention to act on the advice of the cabinet. In Ireland, however, the Constitution explicitly vests executive authority in the government, not the president.
The executive authority of the government is subject to certain limitations. In particular:
Government ministers are collectively responsible for the actions of the government. Each minister is responsible for the actions of his or her department. Departments of State do not have legal personalities. Actions of departments are carried out under the title of ministers even, as is commonly the case when the minister has little knowledge of the details of these actions. This contradicts the rule incommon law that a person given a statutory power cannot delegate that power.[31] This leads to a phrase in correspondence by government departments, "the Minister has directed me to write", on letters or documents that the minister in question may never have seen.
If the government, or any member of the government, should fail to fulfil its constitutional duties, it may be ordered to do so by a court of law, by a writ ofmandamus. Ministers who fail to comply may, ultimately, be found to be incontempt of court, and even imprisoned.
Prior to independence, the executive of theunilaterally declaredIrish Republic was theMinistry of Dáil Éireann. This was in operation from 1919 to 1922. After the approval of theAnglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922, aProvisional Government of Ireland was established as the executive. The personnel of the Provisional Government overlapped with the Ministry of Dáil Éireann, but they were not identical. On the independence of theIrish Free State on 6 December 1922, both executives were succeeded by theExecutive Council of the Irish Free State. On 29 December 1937, on the coming into force of the Constitution of Ireland, the Eighth Executive Council of the Irish Free State became theFirst Government of Ireland.
The detail and structure of the Government of Ireland has its legislative basis in the Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924; it has been amended on a number of occasions, and these may be cited together as theMinisters and Secretaries Acts 1924 to 2020 and are construed together as one Act.
All governments from 1989 to 2016 werecoalitions of two or more parties. The first coalition government was formed in 1948. The Taoiseach has almost always been the leader of the largest party in the coalition, with the exceptions ofJohn A. Costello, Taoiseach from 1948 to 1951 and from 1954 to 1957 (a member ofFine Gael but not the party leader) andLeo Varadkar, from 2022 to 2024, andSimon Harris, from 2024 to 2025 (leaders of Fine Gael, in a three-party coalition where Fianna Fáil was the largest party).
The public service in Ireland refers to the totality ofpublic administration in Ireland. As of Q4, 2024 the total number of employees in the Irish public service stands at 408,895 people. TheDepartment of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation defines the public service as comprising seven sectors: thecivil service,defence sector,education sector,health sector,justice sector,local authorities andnon-commercial state agencies (such asBord Bia,IDA Ireland and theCommission for Regulation of Utilities). Commercialstate-owned bodies such asRTÉ,ESB Group andAn Post are not part of the public service in Ireland.
The largest sector is the health sector with over 148,265 employees (largely in theHealth Service Executive), followed by the education sector with approximately 134,556.[32]
| Sector | Employees |
|---|---|
| Civil Service | 52,793 |
| Defence Sector | 7,903 |
| Education Sector | 134,556 |
| Health Sector | 148,265 |
| Justice Sector | 14,080 |
| Local Authorities | 32,372 |
| NCSA | 18,922 |
| Total | 408,895 |
| Agency/Body | Employees |
|---|---|
| Health Service Executive | 89,284 |
| Garda Síochána | 14,080 |
| Irish Defence Forces | 7,903 |
| Revenue Commissioners | 6,622 |
| Dublin City Council | 6,094 |
| Irish Prison Service | 3,547 |
The civil service of Ireland consists of two broad components, theCivil Service of the Government and theCivil Service of the State. While this partition is largely theoretical, the two parts do have some fundamental operational differences. The civil service is expected to maintain political impartiality in its work, and some parts of it are entirely independent of government decision-making.
Micheál Martin was nominated as Taoiseach byDáil Éireann on 23 January 2025 and appointed by thepresident. Martin nominated the government members, and after their approval by the Dáil, they were appointed by the president.
The President shall, on the nomination of Dáil Éireann, appoint the Taoiseach, that is, the head of the Government or Prime Minister.
The Budget sets out an overall package of €10.5 billion. This is made up of a package of once-off measures worth €2 billion, total expenditure of €6.9 billion and additional capital expenditure of €1.6 billion and permanent tax changes of 1.4 billion for 2025.
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