Ministers and Secretaries Acts

The Constitution of the Irish Free State in 1922 had provided for the formation of a cabinet called the Executive Council.

The 1924 Act formally defined the government departments that were to exist in the Free State, created their titles and outlined their responsibilities.

On 6 December 1922, under the Treaty's provisions, the new Constitution of the Irish Free State, having been enacted separately by the Third Dáil, sitting as a constituent assembly, and the Parliament of the United Kingdom, came into force through a proclamation issued by the King.

Initially its governmental offices were an amalgam of posts from the Lord Lieutenant's administration, the Provisional Government and the Dáil Ministry.

For example, there was an Irish Postmaster General, a post that had existed in the Lord Lieutenant's administration, and a Minister for Home Affairs, an office created as part of the Dáil ministry.

In the Governor-General's Address to Dáil Éireann at the State Opening of the Oireachtas on 3 October 1923 the first indication was given that: Amongst the measures to be submitted to you will be one providing for the organisation of the great departments of State, the distribution of their functions in a manner calculated to bring about greater efficiency in administration, and the regular Constitution of the Ministries charged with the administration of the various Departments of Government.

[2]The Ministers and Secretaries Bill 1923 was introduced by William T. Cosgrave, President of the Executive Council, on 16 November 1923.

[3] The governmental structures that were to be a permanent feature of independent Irish government were regularised and defined.

[23] In its place, it permitted the government to appoint up to ten members of the Oireachtas (Dáil or Seanad) to the position of Minister of State (Irish: Aire Stáit), a ministerial position of non-cabinet rank attached to one or more of the Departments of State.

The 1939 Act allowed a member of the Government to be a minister without portfolio, not being assigned to a Department of State, but to be given a specific style or title.