The union originated in 1890, when a Dublin branch of the Second Division Civil Servants' Association was founded.

In 1918, it became the independent Association of Executive Officers of the Civil Service In 1931, it was renamed as the Civil Service Executive and Higher Officers' Association.

The union was active in the Civil Service Federation and its successor, the Civil Service Alliance, but didn't affiliate to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions until 1969.

In 1943, the union began publishing a monthly journal, Public Service Review.

Under the leadership of Dan Murphy, it embarked on a series of mergers, absorbing Cómhaltas Cána in 1979, the Administrative Officers' Association, the Association of Third Secretaries - Foreign Affairs, and the District Court Clerks - Provincial and Metropolitan in 1980, the Social Welfare Officers' Association in 1981, and the Irish Customs and Excise Union in 1989.