Taoiseach

Taoiseach
Incumbent
Leo Varadkar
since 17 December 2022
StyleIrish: A Thaoisigh
StatusHead of government[a]
Member of
Reports toOireachtas
ResidenceNone[b]
SeatGovernment Buildings,
Merrion Street, Dublin, Ireland
NominatorDáil Éireann
AppointerPresident of Ireland
Term lengthWhile commanding the confidence of the majority of Dáil Éireann. No term limits are imposed on the office.
Inaugural holderÉamon de Valera[c]
Formation29 December 1937[c][1]
DeputyTánaiste
Salary€230,372 annually (2023)[2]
(including €107,376 salary as a TD)[2]
WebsiteDepartment of the Taoiseach

The Taoiseach[d] is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland.[a] The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the office-holder must retain the support of a majority in the Dáil to remain in office.

The Irish word taoiseach means "chief" or "leader", and was adopted in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland as the title of the "head of the Government or Prime Minister".[a] It is the official title of the head of government in both English and Irish, and is not used for the prime ministers of other countries, who are instead referred to in Irish by the generic term príomh-aire.[e] The phrase an Taoiseach is sometimes used in an otherwise English-language context, and means the same as "the Taoiseach".

The current Taoiseach is Leo Varadkar, TD, outgoing leader of Fine Gael, who again took office on 17 December 2022 following a planned rotation as part of the coalition agreement between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party.[4] Micheál Martin, TD held the post from June 2020 until December 2022 as part of that agreement.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ "Former Taoisigh". www.gov.ie. Government of Ireland. 1 November 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Salaries, Houses of the Oireachtas". Oireachtas. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  3. ^ "Taoiseach". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020.
  4. ^ McEnroe, Juno (27 June 2020). "33rd Dáil elects Micheál Martin as new Taoiseach". Irish Examiner. Additional reporting by Digital Desk and Aoife Moore. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.