Taoiseach

Taoiseach of Ireland
Flag of Ireland
Incumbent Leo Varadkar since 14 June 2017
Department of the Taoiseach
Style	Taoiseach Irish: A Thaoisigh
Member of	Dáil Éireann Cabinet Council of State European Council
Reports to	The Oireachtas
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[note 1]
Formation	29 December 1937[note 1]
Deputy	Tánaiste
Salary	€190,233[1]
Website	www.taoiseach.ie

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The Taoiseach (/ˈtiːʃəx/,^[2] pl. Taoisigh /ˈtiːʃi/; Irish pronunciation: [ˈt̪ˠiː.ʃəx]) is the head of government (prime minister) of Ireland. An Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (parliament), and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.^{[note 2]}

The word means "chieftain" or "leader" in Irish and was adopted in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland as the title of the "head of the Government, or Prime Minister".^{[note 2]} Taoiseach is the official title of the head of government in both English and Irish. Outside of Ireland, An Taoiseach is often referred to as the "Prime Minister of Ireland".

Leo Varadkar TD is the current Taoiseach; he took office on 14 June 2017,^[3] following his election as leader of Fine Gael on 2 June 2017.^[4] Varadkar is the youngest Taoiseach in the history of the Irish state, having taken office at the age of 38, and the first openly LGBT person and the first person of Indian descent to lead the Irish government.

Overview

Under the Constitution of Ireland, An Taoiseach is nominated by a simple majority of Dáil Éireann from among its members. He/she is then formally appointed to office by the President, who is required to appoint whomever the Dáil designates, without the option of declining to make the appointment. For this reason, it is often said that An Taoiseach is "elected" by Dáil Éireann.

If An Taoiseach loses the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann, he/she is not automatically removed from office but, rather, is compelled either to resign or to persuade the President to dissolve the Dáil. The President may refuse to grant a dissolution and, in effect, force An Taoiseach to resign; to date, no president has exercised this prerogative, though the option arose in 1944 and 1994, and twice in 1982. An Taoiseach may lose the support of Dáil Éireann by the passage of a vote of no confidence, or the failure of a vote of confidence; or alternatively, the Dáil may refuse supply.^{[note 3]} In the event of the Taoiseach's resignation, he/she continues to exercise the duties and functions of his/her office until the appointment of a successor.

An Taoiseach nominates the remaining members of the Government, who are then, with the consent of the Dáil, appointed by the President. An Taoiseach also has authority to advise the President to dismiss cabinet ministers from office, advice the President is required to follow by convention. An Taoiseach is further responsible for appointing eleven members of the Seanad.

The Department of the Taoiseach is the government department which supports and advises An Taoiseach in carrying out his/her various duties.

Salary

Since 2013, the Taoiseach's annual salary is €185,350.^[5] It was cut from €214,187 to €200,000 when Kenny took office, before being cut further to €185,350 under the Haddington Road Agreement in 2013.

A proposed increase of €38,000 in 2007 was deferred when Brian Cowen became Taoiseach^[6] and in October 2008, the government announced a 10% salary cut for all ministers, including the Taoiseach.^[7] However this was a voluntary cut and the salaries remained nominally the same with both ministers and Taoiseach essentially refusing 10% of their salary. This courted controversy in December 2009 when a salary cut of 20% was based on the higher figure before the refused amount was deducted.^[8] The Taoiseach is also allowed an additional €118,981 in annual expenses.

Residence

There is no official residence of the Taoiseach. In 2008 it was reported speculatively that the former Steward's Lodge at Farmleigh adjoining the Phoenix Park would become the official residence of the Taoiseach; however no official statements were made nor any action taken.^[9] The house, which forms part of the Farmleigh estate acquired by the State in 1999 for €29.2m, was renovated at a cost of nearly €600,000 in 2005 by the Office of Public Works. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern did not use it as a residence, but his successor Brian Cowen used it "from time to time".^[10]

History

Origins and etymology

The words Taoiseach (Irish pronunciation: [t̪ˠiːʃəx]) and Tánaiste (the title of the deputy prime minister) are both from the Irish language and of ancient origin. Though An Taoiseach is described in the Constitution of Ireland as "the head of the Government or Prime Minister",^{[note 2]} its literal translation is chieftain or leader.^[11] Although Éamon de Valera, who introduced the title in 1937, was neither a Fascist nor a dictator, it has sometimes been remarked that the meaning leader in 1937 made the title similar to the titles of Fascist dictators of the time, such as Führer (Hitler), Duce (Mussolini) and Caudillo (Franco).^[12][13][14] Tánaiste in turn refers to the system of tanistry, the Gaelic system of succession whereby a leader would appoint an heir apparent while still living.

In Scottish Gaelic, tòiseach translates as clan chief and both words originally had similar meaning in the Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland.^{[note 4][15][16][note 5]} The related Welsh language word tywysog (current meaning: prince) has a similar origin and meaning.^{[note 6]} It is hypothesized that both derive ultimately from the proto-Celtic *towissākos "chieftain, leader".

The plural of taoiseach is taoisigh (Irish: [t̪ˠiːʃiː]).^[11]

Although the Irish form An Taoiseach is sometimes used in English instead of "the Taoiseach",^[17] the English version of the Constitution states that he or she "shall be called ... the Taoiseach".^{[note 2]}

Debate on the title

In 1937 when the draft Constitution of Ireland was being debated in the Dáil, Frank MacDermot, an opposition politician, moved an amendment to substitute "Prime Minister" for the proposed "Taoiseach" title in the English text of the Constitution. It was proposed to keep the "Taoiseach" title in the Irish language text. The proponent remarked:^[18]

It seems to me to be mere make-believe to try to incorporate a word like "Taoiseach" in the English language. It would be pronounced wrongly by 99 percent of the people. I have already ascertained it is a very difficult word to pronounce correctly. That being so, even for the sake of the dignity of the Irish language, it would be more sensible that when speaking English we should be allowed to refer to the gentleman in question as the Prime Minister... It is just one more example of the sort of things that are being done here as if for the purpose of putting off the people in the North. No useful purpose of any kind can be served by compelling us, when speaking English, to refer to An Taoiseach rather than to the Prime Minister.

The President of the Executive Council, Éamon de Valera, gave the term's meaning as "chieftain" or "Captain". He said he was "not disposed" to support the proposed amendment and felt the word "Taoiseach" did not need to be changed. The proposed amendment was defeated on a vote and "Taoiseach" was included as the title ultimately adopted by plebiscite of the people.^[19]

Modern office

Department of An Taoiseach at Government Buildings, Merrion Street, Dublin

The modern position of Taoiseach was established by the 1937 Constitution of Ireland, to replace the position of President of the Executive Council of the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. The positions of Taoiseach and President of the Executive Council differed in certain fundamental respects. Under the Constitution of the Irish Free State, the latter was vested with considerably less power and was largely just the chairman of the cabinet, the Executive Council. For example, the President of the Executive Council could not dismiss a fellow minister. Instead, the Executive Council had to be disbanded and reformed entirely in order to remove one of its number. The President of the Executive Council could also not personally ask the Governor-General to dissolve Dáil Éireann, that power belonging collectively to the Executive Council.

In contrast, An Taoiseach created in 1937 possesses a much more powerful role. He can both advise the President to dismiss ministers and dissolve Parliament on his own authority—advice that the President is almost always required to follow by convention.^{[note 7]} His role is greatly enhanced because under the Constitution, he is both de jure and de facto chief executive, since the Constitution explicitly vests executive power in the Government. In most other parliamentary democracies, the head of state is at least the nominal chief executive.

Historically, where there have been multi-party or coalition governments, An Taoiseach has come from the leader of the largest party in the coalition. One exception to this was John A. Costello, who was not leader of his party, but an agreed choice to head the government, because the other parties refused to accept then Fine Gael leader Richard Mulcahy as Taoiseach.

List of office holders

Before the enactment of the 1937 Constitution, the head of government was referred to as the President of the Executive Council. This office was first held by W. T. Cosgrave of Cumann na nGaedheal from 1922–32, and then by Éamon de Valera of Fianna Fáil from 1932–37. By convention, Taoisigh are numbered to include Cosgrave;^{[20][21][22][23]} for example, Leo Varadkar is considered the 14th Taoiseach, not the 13th.

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[note 8]	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
2		Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) TD for Clare	9 March 1932[note 9]	29 December 1937	Fianna Fáil	6th	FF (minority)		Seán T. O'Kelly	7 (1932)
						7th				8 (1933)
						8th				9 (1937)
No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death) Constituency	Term of office		Party	Government Composition		Tánaiste		Dáil (elected)
(2)		Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) TD for Clare	29 December 1937	18 February 1948	Fianna Fáil	1st	FF (minority)		Seán T. O'Kelly	9 ( ···· )
						2nd	FF			10 (1938)
						3rd	FF (minority)			11 (1943)
						4th	FF		Seán Lemass	12 (1944)
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		William Norton	13 (1948)
(2)		Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) TD for Clare	13 June 1951	2 June 1954	Fianna Fáil	6th	FF (minority)		Seán Lemass	14 (1951)
(3)		John A. Costello (1891–1976) TD for Dublin South-East	2 June 1954	20 March 1957	Fine Gael	7th	FG-Lab-CnT		William Norton	15 (1954)
(2)		Éamon de Valera (1882–1975) TD for Clare	20 March 1957	23 June 1959	Fianna Fáil	8th	FF		Seán Lemass	16 (1957)
4		Seán Lemass (1899–1971) TD for Dublin South-Central	23 June 1959	10 November 1966	Fianna Fáil	9th	FF		Seán MacEntee
						10th	FF (minority)			17 (1961)
						11th	FF		Frank Aiken	18 (1965)
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		Erskine H. Childers	19 (1969)
6		Liam Cosgrave (1920–) TD for Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown	14 March 1973	5 July 1977	Fine Gael	14th	FG-Lab		Brendan Corish	20 (1973)
(5)		Jack Lynch (1917–1999) TD for Cork City	5 July 1977	11 December 1979	Fianna Fáil	15th	FF		George Colley	21 (1977)
7		Charles Haughey (1925–2006) TD for Dublin Artane	11 December 1979	30 June 1981	Fianna Fáil	16th	FF
8		Garret FitzGerald (1926–2011) TD for Dublin South-East	30 June 1981	9 March 1982	Fine Gael	17th	FG-Lab (minority)		Michael O'Leary	22 (1981)
(7)		Charles Haughey (1925–2006) TD for Dublin North-Central	9 March 1982	14 December 1982	Fianna Fáil	18th	FF (minority)		Ray MacSharry	23 (Feb.1982)
(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		Dick Spring	24 (Nov.1982)
									Peter Barry
(7)		Charles Haughey (1925–2006) TD for Dublin North-Central	10 March 1987	11 February 1992	Fianna Fáil	20th	FF (minority)		Brian Lenihan	25 (1987)
						21st	FF-PD			26 (1989)
									John P. Wilson
9		Albert Reynolds (1932–2014) TD for Longford–Roscommon	11 February 1992	15 December 1994	Fianna Fáil	22nd	FF-PD
						23rd	FF-Lab FF (minority) from Nov 1994		Dick Spring	27 (1992)
									Bertie Ahern
10		John Bruton (1947–) TD for Meath	15 December 1994	26 June 1997	Fine Gael	24th	FG-Lab-DL		Dick Spring
11		Bertie Ahern (1951–) TD for Dublin Central	26 June 1997	7 May 2008	Fianna Fáil	25th	FF-PD-Ind		Mary Harney	28 (1997)
						26th	FF-PD			29 (2002)
									Michael McDowell
						27th	FF-Green-PD-Ind		Brian Cowen	30 (2007)
12		Brian Cowen (1960–) TD for Laois–Offaly	7 May 2008	9 March 2011	Fianna Fáil	28th	FF-Green-PD-Ind FF-Green-Ind from Nov 2009 FF (minority) from Jan 2011		Mary Coughlan
13		Enda Kenny (1951–) TD for Mayo	9 March 2011	14 June 2017[24]	Fine Gael	29th	FG-Lab		Eamon Gilmore	31 (2011)
									Joan Burton
						30th	FG-Ind (minority)		Frances Fitzgerald	32 (2016)
14		Leo Varadkar (1979–) TD for Dublin West	14 June 2017[25]	Incumbent	Fine Gael	31st	FG-Ind (minority)

Timeline

Living former officeholders

There are five living former taoisigh:

Cosgrave currently holds the record for having the longest post-premiership of any Taoiseach (currently 7004146510000000000♠40 years, 41 days).

See also

• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• Records of Irish heads of government since 1922
• Irish heads of government since 1919

Notes

1. 1 2 Before the enactment of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland, the head of government was referred to as the President of the Executive Council. This office was first held by W. T. Cosgrave from 1922–32, and then by Éamon de Valera from 1932–37.
2. 1 2 3 4 Article 13.1.1° and Article 28.5.1° of the Constitution of Ireland. The latter provision reads: "The head of the Government, or Prime Minister, shall be called, and is in this Constitution referred to as, the Taoiseach."
3. ↑ One example of the Dáil refusing supply occurred in January 1982, when the then Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition government of Garret FitzGerald lost a vote on the budget.
4. ↑ John Frederick Vaughan Campbell Cawdor (1742). Innes Cosmo, ed. The book of the thanes of Cawdor: a series of papers selected from the charter room at Cawdor. 1236–1742, Volume 1236, Issue 1742. Spalding Club. p. xiii. Retrieved 23 June 2013. As we cannot name the first Celtic chieftain who consented to change his style of Toshach and his patriarchal sway for the title and stability of King's Thane of Cawdor, so it is impossible to fix the precise time when their ancient property and offices were acquired. 
5. ↑ "Tartan Details - Toshach". Scottish Register of Tartans. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2013. Toshach is an early Celtic title given to minor territorial chiefs in Scotland (note Eire Prime Minister's official title is this). 
6. ↑ John Thomas Koch (2006), Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, p. 1062, ISBN 1851094407, An early word meaning 'leader' appears on a 5th- or 6th-century inscribed stone as both ogam Irish and British genitive TOVISACI: tywysog now means 'prince' in Welsh, the regular descriptive title used for Prince Charles, for example; while in Ireland, the corresponding Taoiseach is now the correct title, in both Irish and English, for the Prime Minister of the Irish Republic (Éire). 
7. ↑ Among the most famous ministerial dismissals have been those of Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney during the Arms Crisis in 1970, Brian Lenihan in 1990 and Albert Reynolds, Pádraig Flynn and Máire Geoghegan-Quinn in 1991.
8. ↑ Cosgrave also headed the Irish Government from August 22, 1922, during the transitional period before the state became officially independent on December 6, 1922 (See Irish heads of government since 1919).
9. ↑ De Valera also headed the pre-independence revolutionary Irish Government from 1 April 1919 to 9 January 1922 (See Irish heads of government since 1919).

References

Further reading

The book Chairman or Chief: The Role of the Taoiseach in Irish Government (1971) by Brian Farrell provides a good overview of the conflicting roles for the Taoiseach. Though long out of print, it may still be available in libraries or from AbeBooks. Biographies are also available of de Valera, Lemass, Lynch, Cosgrave, FitzGerald, Haughey, Reynolds and Ahern. FitzGerald wrote an autobiography, while an authorised biography was produced of de Valera. There is a chapter by Garret FitzGerald on the role of the Taoiseach in a festschrift to Brian Farrell. There is a chapter by Eoin O'Malley on the Taoiseach and cabinet in 'Governing Ireland: From cabinet government to delegated governance'(Eoin O'Malley and Muiris MacCarthaigh eds.) Dublin: IPA 2012.

• "David Gwynn Morgan: What exactly is a caretaker taoiseach?", The Irish Times, 8 March 2016

Biographies

Some biographies of former Taoisigh and Presidents of the Executive Council

• Tim Pat Coogan, Éamon de Valera
• John Horgan, Seán Lemass
• Brian Farrell, Seán Lemass
• T. P. O'Mahony, Jack Lynch: A Biography
• T. Ryle Dwyer, Nice Fellow: A Biography of Jack Lynch
• Stephen Collins, The Cosgrave legacy
• Garret FitzGerald, All in a Life
• Garret FitzGerald, "Just Garret: Tales from the Political Frontline"
• Raymond Smith, Garret: The Enigma
• T. Ryle Dwyer, Short Fellow: A Biography of Charles Haughey
• Martin Mansergh, Spirit of the Nation: The Collected Speeches of Haughey
• Joe Joyce & Peter Murtagh The Boss: Charles Haughey in Government
• Tim Ryan, Albert Reynolds: The Longford Leader
• Albert Reynolds, My Autobiography (Reviewed here)
• Bertie Ahern, My Autobiography (Reviewed here)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taoisigh.

• Official website