The Irish word taoiseach means "chief" or "leader", and was adopted in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland as the title of the "head of the Government or Prime Minister".

[5] Under the Constitution of Ireland, the Taoiseach is nominated by a simple majority of the voting members of Dáil Éireann.

This caused controversy in December 2009 when a salary cut of 20% was based on the higher figure before the refused amount was deducted.

In 2008, it was reported speculatively that the former Steward's Lodge at Farmleigh adjoining the Phoenix Park would become the official residence of the Taoiseach.

[12] The house, which forms part of the Farmleigh estate acquired by the State in 1999 for €29.2 million, was renovated at a cost of nearly €600,000 in 2005 by the Office of Public Works.

Though the salute is often called "Amhrán Dóchais", Brian Ó Cuív argued "Mór Chluana" is the correct title.

[17][18] The words Taoiseach and Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) are both from the Irish language and of ancient origin.

That being so, even for the sake of the dignity of the Irish language, it would be more sensible that when speaking English we should be allowed to refer to the gentleman in question as the Prime Minister...

No useful purpose of any kind can be served by compelling us, when speaking English, to refer to An Taoiseach rather than to the Prime Minister.The President of the Executive Council, Éamon de Valera, gave the term's meaning as "chieftain" or "Captain".

The proposed amendment was defeated on a vote and "Taoiseach" was included as the title ultimately adopted by plebiscite of the people.

[30] The modern position of Taoiseach was established by the 1937 Constitution of Ireland and is the most powerful role in Irish politics.

Under the Constitution of the Irish Free State, the latter was vested with considerably less power and was largely just the chairman of the cabinet, the Executive Council.

In most other parliamentary democracies, the head of state is at least the nominal chief executive, while being bound by convention to act on the advice of the cabinet.

The two agreed to rotate the role of Taoiseach, with Micheál Martin going first before being replaced by Leo Varadkar, and later Simon Harris, of the smaller Fine Gael party.

This office was held by W. T. Cosgrave of Cumann na nGaedheal from 1922 to 1932, and by Éamon de Valera of Fianna Fáil from 1932 to 1937.

Biographies are also available of de Valera, Lemass, Lynch, Cosgrave, FitzGerald, Haughey, Reynolds and Ahern.