List of female cabinet ministers of the Republic of Ireland

[a] For example, five of the twenty Ministers of State appointed by the government of Micheál Martin in June 2020 were women, with two regularly attending cabinet.

As of 2025[update] it includes three women as ministers in the cabinet: Norma Foley, Helen McEntee and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

Criticism of the imbalance is defended by pointing to male dominance of the Oireachtas (parliament) from which ministers are appointed.

[9] The 1937 Constitution of Ireland requires the government to consist of between seven and fifteen members,[10] including the Taoiseach (prime minister).

[12] Since the formation of the 12th government of Ireland in 1966,[13] all Irish cabinets have been formed with the constitutional maximum of fifteen ministers.

[4] Each minister must be a member of the Oireachtas (the national parliament),[17] whose eligibility criteria for membership are defined as being "without distinction of sex".

[25] She was only[26][27] the second woman minister in the national government of any country, after Alexandra Kollontai's appointment in 1917 as People's Commissar in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

[34] More than 58 years elapsed between Markievicz leaving office and the appointment in December 1979 of Máire Geoghegan-Quinn as the second woman in cabinet.

The first time two women served as ministers simultaneously was in January 1993, when Taoiseach Albert Reynolds included both Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and Niamh Bhreathnach in his cabinet.

[9] In February 2018, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan launched a programme of commemoration of the centenary of women's enfranchisement.

[46][47] Madigan said the Irish State "failed women for far too long,"[48] and that it was time to "redouble our efforts" to provide equal opportunities.

[46] Former Tánaiste Joan Burton called for the next government to consist of an equal number of men and women.