The current government entered office on 23 January 2025 with Micheál Martin, leader of Fianna Fáil, as Taoiseach.

It is a majority coalition government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and a group of independent TDs, and was formed after negotiations following a general election in December 2024.

Since the formation of the 12th Government of Ireland in 1966, all Irish cabinets have been formed with the constitutional maximum of fifteen ministers.

The total sometimes falls below this number for brief periods following the resignation of individual ministers or the withdrawal of a party from a coalition.

Such defunct ministerial positions include the Ministers for Labour, Posts and Telegraphs, Public Service and Supplies.

[12] Currently Jack Chambers, Hildegarde Naughton and Pippa Hackett are Ministers of State who attend cabinet.

[15] Trinity College Dublin law professor Oran Doyle has argued that this practice breaches cabinet confidentiality as required by the Constitution.

[16] A new government is formed by the Taoiseach appointed after each general election after receiving the nomination of the Dáil.

[17] The President retains absolute discretion to refuse to grant a dissolution to a Taoiseach who has lost the confidence of the Dáil.

This applies only in cases of a motion of no confidence or loss of supply (rejection of a budget), rather than the defeat of the government in other legislation or Dáil votes.

However, in such a scenario, according to the Constitution, "the Taoiseach and the other members of the Government shall continue to carry on their duties until their successors shall have been appointed".

In some other parliamentary regimes, the head of state is the nominal chief executive, though bound by convention to act on the advice of the cabinet.

Prior to independence, the executive of the unilaterally declared Irish Republic was the Ministry of Dáil Éireann.

After the approval of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922, a Provisional Government of Ireland was established as the executive.

Commercial state-owned bodies such as RTÉ, ESB Group and An Post are not considered part of the public service in Ireland.

The civil service is expected to maintain political impartiality in its work, and some parts of it are entirely independent of Government decision making.

Martin proposed the nomination of the government members, and after their approval by the Dáil, they were appointed by the president.