After returning from mandatory military service, from 1972 to 1978 he worked on several cultural monuments (e.g. churches or the Verkiai Palace) restoring their interior and especially rolled gold and molding.

Kirkilas was confirmed by the Seimas on 4 July 2006 after Zigmantas Balčytis, the provisional Prime Minister, failed to gather the required support from the parliament.

[4] During his time in office GDP rose by 21 percent, financing of socially sensitive areas increased, strategic decisions were made in the field of energy, personal income tax decreased and relations with Poland were strengthened.

[citation needed] In July 2007, Kirkilas signed the protocol assigning the members of newly formed governmental work group to assist the energy company "Lietuvos energija" in negotiating and consulting with potential foreign partners for a new Ignalina nuclear power plant project.

After the so-called State Security Department scandal in 2006, when a senior officer Vytautas Pociūnas died under controversial circumstances in a hotel in Belarus, the witnesses described Darius Jurgelevičius as a middleman transmitting then Lithuanian Foreign Ministry's clerk Albinas Januška's influence to State Security Department.