Taoiseach

Taoiseach
Incumbent Micheál Martin since 27 June 2020
Department of the Taoiseach
Style	Taoiseach Irish: A Thaoisigh
Member of	Dáil Éireann Cabinet Council of State European Council
Reports to	Oireachtas
Residence	Steward's Lodge
Seat	Government Buildings, Merrion Street, Dublin, Ireland
Nominator	Dáil Éireann
Appointer	President of Ireland
Term length	While commanding the confidence of the majority of Dáil Éireann. No term limits are imposed on the office.
Inaugural holder	Éamon de Valera
Formation	29 December 1937
Deputy	Tánaiste
Salary	€207,590 annually
Website	taoiseach.gov.ie

The Taoiseach (ⁱ/ˈtiːʃəx/), also referred to as An Taoiseach ([ən t̪ˠiːʃʲəx]), is the head of the government in Ireland. The term prime minister is not used by the Irish media.

Appointment

When a new Dáil Éireann meets after an election it nominates one of its members to be Taoiseach. He then visits the President, and is appointed. He then presents a list of ministers to the Dáil and when this is approved they are also appointed by the President.

If the Taoiseach resigns all members of the government are said to have resigned as well. If a minister does not resign when asked by the Taoiseach, the Taoiseach can ask the President to sack the minister. The President cannot refuse to do this.

Department of the Taoiseach

The Department of the Taoiseach helps the Taoiseach to do his job. The main duty of the Taoiseach is to start policy and coordinate policy of the rest of government. Especially policies on Economic and Social Development, Northern Ireland, the European Union and Public Sector Change and Oireachtas Reform.

The Government Chief Whip, who has to make sure the government's policies and ideas are turned into law, is a part of the Taoiseach's department.

The current Taoiseach is Leo Varadkar since 14 June 2017.

List

President of the Executive Council
No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death) Constituency	Term of office		Party	Exec. Council Composition		Vice President		Dáil (elected)
1		W. T. Cosgrave (1880–1965) TD for Carlow–Kilkenny until 1927 TD for Cork Borough from 1927	6 December 1922	9 March 1932	Sinn Féin (Pro-Treaty)	1st	SF (PT) (minority)		Kevin O'Higgins	3 (1922)
					Cumann na nGaedheal	2nd	CnG (minority)			4 (1923)
						3rd			Ernest Blythe	5 (Jun.1927)
						4th				6 (Sep.1927)
						5th
style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=3 |2		Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) TD for Clare	9 March 1932	29 December 1937	Fianna Fáil	6th	FF (minority)	style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" rowspan=3 |	Seán T. O'Kelly	7 (1932)
7th						8 (1933)
8th						9 (1937)
President of the Executive Council No. Portrait Name (Birth–Death) Constituency Term of office Party Exec. Council Composition Vice President Dáil (elected) 1 W. T. Cosgrave (1880–1965) TD for Carlow–Kilkenny until 1927 TD for Cork Borough from 1927 6 December 1922 9 March 1932 Sinn Féin (Pro-Treaty) 1st SF (PT) (minority) Kevin O'Higgins 3 (1922) Cumann na nGaedheal 2nd CnG (minority) 4 (1923) 3rd Ernest Blythe 5 (Jun.1927) 4th 6 (Sep.1927) 5th style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=3 |2 Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) TD for Clare 9 March 1932 29 December 1937 Fianna Fáil 6th FF (minority) style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" rowspan=3 | Seán T. O'Kelly 7 (1932) 7th 8 (1933) 8th 9 (1937) Taoiseach No. Portrait Name (Birth–Death) Constituency Term of office Party Government Composition Tánaiste Dáil (elected) style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=4 |(2) Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) TD for Clare 29 December 1937 18 February 1948 Fianna Fáil 1st FF (minority) style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" rowspan=3 | Seán T. O'Kelly 9 ( ···· ) 2nd FF 10 (1938) 3rd FF (minority) 11 (1943) 4th FF style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" | Seán Lemass 12 (1944) style="background:Template:Fine Gael/meta/color; color:white;" |3 John A. Costello (1891–1976) TD for Dublin South-East 18 February 1948 13 June 1951 Fine Gael 5th FG–Lab–CnP–CnT–NL–Ind style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (Ireland)/meta/color" | William Norton 13 (1948) style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" |(2) Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) TD for Clare 13 June 1951 2 June 1954 Fianna Fáil 6th FF (minority) style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" | Seán Lemass 14 (1951) style="background:Template:Fine Gael/meta/color; color:white;" |(3) John A. Costello (1891–1976) TD for Dublin South-East 2 June 1954 20 March 1957 Fine Gael 7th FG–Lab–CnT style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (Ireland)/meta/color" | William Norton 15 (1954) style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" |(2) Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) TD for Clare 20 March 1957 23 June 1959 Fianna Fáil 8th FF style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" | Seán Lemass 16 (1957) style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=3 |4 Seán Lemass (1899–1971) TD for Dublin South-Central 23 June 1959 10 November 1966 Fianna Fáil 9th FF rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" | Seán MacEntee 10th FF (minority) 17 (1961) 11th FF style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" rowspan="2" | Frank Aiken 18 (1965) style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=2 |5 Jack Lynch (1917–1999) TD for Cork Borough until 1969 TD for Cork City North-West from 1969 10 November 1966 14 March 1973 Fianna Fáil 12th FF 13th FF style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" | Erskine H. Childers 19 (1969) style="background:Template:Fine Gael/meta/color; color:white;" |6 Liam Cosgrave (1920–2017) TD for Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown 14 March 1973 5 July 1977 Fine Gael 14th FG–Lab style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (Ireland)/meta/color" | Brendan Corish 20 (1973) style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" |(5) Jack Lynch (1917–1999) TD for Cork City 5 July 1977 11 December 1979 Fianna Fáil 15th FF style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" rowspan="2" | George Colley 21 (1977) style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" |7 Charles Haughey (1925–2006) TD for Dublin Artane 11 December 1979 30 June 1981 Fianna Fáil 16th FF style="background:Template:Fine Gael/meta/color; color:white;" |8 Garret FitzGerald (1926–2011) TD for Dublin South-East 30 June 1981 9 March 1982 Fine Gael 17th FG–Lab (minority) style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (Ireland)/meta/color" | Michael O'Leary 22 (1981) style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" |(7) Charles Haughey (1925–2006) TD for Dublin North-Central 9 March 1982 14 December 1982 Fianna Fáil 18th FF (minority) style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" | Ray MacSharry 23 (Feb.1982) style="background:Template:Fine Gael/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=2 |(8) Garret FitzGerald (1926–2011) TD for Dublin South-East 14 December 1982 10 March 1987 Fine Gael 19th FG–Lab FG (minority) from Jan 1987 style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (Ireland)/meta/color" | Dick Spring 24 (Nov.1982) style="background-color: Template:Fine Gael/meta/color" | Peter Barry style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=3 |(7) Charles Haughey (1925–2006) TD for Dublin North-Central 10 March 1987 11 February 1992 Fianna Fáil 20th FF (minority) style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" rowspan="2" | Brian Lenihan 25 (1987) 21st FF–PD 26 (1989) rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" | John Wilson style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" rowspan=3 |9 Albert Reynolds (1932–2014) TD for Longford–Roscommon 11 February 1992 15 December 1994 Fianna Fáil 22nd FF–PD FF (minority) from Nov 1992 23rd FF–Lab FF (minority) from Nov 1994 style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (Ireland)/meta/color" | Dick Spring 27 (1992) style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" | Bertie Ahern style="background:Template:Fine Gael/meta/color; color:white;" |10 John Bruton (b. 1947) TD for Meath 15 December 1994 26 June 1997 Fine Gael 24th FG–Lab–DL style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (Ireland)/meta/color" | Dick Spring rowspan=4 style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" |11 Bertie Ahern (b. 1951) TD for Dublin Central 26 June 1997 7 May 2008 Fianna Fáil 25th FF–PD (minority) rowspan=3 style="background-color: Template:Progressive Democrats/meta/color" | Mary Harney 28 (1997) 26th FF–PD 29 (2002) Michael McDowell 27th FF–Green–PD style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" | Brian Cowen 30 (2007) style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" |12 Brian Cowen (b. 1960) TD for Laois–Offaly 7 May 2008 9 March 2011 Fianna Fáil 28th FF–Green–PD FF–Green–Ind from Nov 2009 FF (minority) from Jan 2011 style="background-color: Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color" | Mary Coughlan rowspan=3 style="background:Template:Fine Gael/meta/color; color:white;" |13 Enda Kenny (b. 1951) TD for Mayo 9 March 2011 14 June 2017 Fine Gael 29th FG–Lab style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (Ireland)/meta/color" | Eamon Gilmore 31 (2011) style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (Ireland)/meta/color" | Joan Burton 30th FG–Ind (minority) rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:Fine Gael/meta/color" | Frances Fitzgerald 32 (2016) rowspan="2" style="background:Template:Fine Gael/meta/color; color:white;" |14 Leo Varadkar (b. 1979) TD for Dublin West 14 June 2017 27 June 2020 Fine Gael 31st FG–Ind (minority) Simon Coveney style="background:Template:Fianna Fáil/meta/color; color:white;" |15 Micheál Martin (b. 1960) TD for Cork South-Central 27 June 2020 Incumbent Fianna Fáil 32nd FF–FG–Green style="background-color: Template:Fine Gael/meta/color" | Leo Varadkar 33 (2020) Notes References