| Leader of Fine Gael | |
|---|---|
| Inaugural holder | Eoin O'Duffy |
| Formation | 8 September 1933 |
| Deputy | Heather Humphreys |
| Website | Simon Harris |
The Leader of Fine Gael is the most senior politician within the Fine Gael political party in Ireland. Since 24 March 2024, the office has been held by Simon Harris following the resignation of Leo Varadkar.
The deputy leader of Fine Gael is Heather Humphreys. [1]
In September 1933, Cumann na nGaedheal, the National Centre Party and the National Guard (previously called the Army Comrades Association better known as the Blueshirts) merged to form Fine Gael – the United Ireland party. Eoin O'Duffy, leader of the National Guard, though not a member of the Oireachtas, became the first party leader, with former President of the Executive Council W. T. Cosgrave serving as parliamentary leader. The merger brought together two strands of Irish nationalism, namely the pro-treaty wing of revolutionary Sinn Féin and the old Home Rule party represented by James Dillon and the National Centre Party. In reality, the new party was a larger version of Cumann na nGaedheal, the party created in 1923 by the pro-Treaty leaders of the Irish Free State under W. T. Cosgrave.
Cosgrave retired as leader before the 1944 general election, and was succeeded by Richard Mulcahy. Mulcahy was then a member of the Seanad, so Tom O'Higgins acted as parliamentary party leader. After the 1948 general election the First Inter-Party Government was formed, but Clann na Poblachta (under former anti-Treaty IRA Chief of Staff Seán MacBride) was opposed to Mulcahy because of his role as Chief of Staff of the National Army in the execution of republicans during the Irish Civil War. Mulcahy stepped aside, former Attorney General John A. Costello becoming Taoiseach; Mulcahy served instead as Minister for Education. Between 1948 and 1959, Costello served as parliamentary party leader. Mulcahy retired as leader in 1959, and was replaced by James Dillon. After defeat in the 1965 general election, Dillon resigned and was replaced by Liam Cosgrave, son of W. T. Cosgrave. Liam Cosgrave served as Taoiseach from 1973 to 1977. Cosgrave resigned after the Fine Gael–Labour Party government lost power at the 1977 general election.
Garret FitzGerald succeeded him as leader, and served as Taoiseach from June 1981 to March 1982 and from December 1982 to March 1987. FitzGerald resigned in 1987 after losing that year's general election, and was replaced by Alan Dukes. After Fine Gael failure in the 1989 general election and the 1990 presidential election, Dukes was replaced by John Bruton in 1990. Following the collapse of the Fianna Fáil–Labour Party government in 1994, Bruton become Taoiseach serving from 1994 to 1997 in a Rainbow coalition with the Labour Party and Democratic Left. Bruton was deposed from the leadership in 2001, in favour of Michael Noonan; this was due in part to fears that Fine Gael would suffer severe losses at the 2002 general election. However, Noonan failed to live up to expectations, and the party suffered an even greater collapse than had been expected under Bruton. Having gone into the election expecting to increase its seat count from 54 to 60, it won only 31 seats. On the night of the election Noonan resigned as leader after just over a year in office, triggering the third leadership contest in the history of the party. Four candidates put their names forward for the leadership, with Enda Kenny emerging as the victor after a secret ballot.
Like other Irish political parties, the Leader of Fine Gael has the power to dismiss or appoint their Deputy and to dismiss or appoint parliamentary party members to frontbench positions. When Fine Gael is in opposition the Leader would usually act as the Leader of the Opposition, and chair the Opposition front bench. Conversely, when the party is in government, the Leader would usually become Taoiseach, with the power to nominate members of the cabinet.
During his leadership, Enda Kenny first served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 until 2011. Fine Gael won a landslide victory in the 2011 general election as a result of Fianna Fáil's handling of the 2008 banking crisis. He was elected Taoiseach and went into coalition with the Labour Party. He led the party into the 2016 general election where Fine Gael lost seats but he was re-elected for a second term as Taoiseach, becoming the first Fine Gael leader to win a second consecutive term as Taoiseach. He led a Fine Gael minority government until he resigned as Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader in 2017. He was succeeded by Leo Varadkar as Leader of Fine Gael and as Taoiseach.
Varadkar became Leader of Fine Gael and Taoiseach in 2017 succeeding Enda Kenny upon his resignation. He led the Fine Gael minority government into the 2020 general election where his party came third to Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin. Fine Gael entered into a three party coalition government with their traditional rival, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. He served as Tánaiste until 17 December 2022, where the positions of Taoiseach and Tánaiste rotated as part of an agreed cabinet reshuffle where he began his second term as Taoiseach while Martin succeeded him as Tánaiste.
| No. | Name | Portrait | Constituency | Term of Office | Taoiseach [lower-alpha 1] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eoin O'Duffy |  | None [lower-alpha 2] | 1933 | 1934 | Éamon de Valera (1932–1948) | ||
| 2 | W. T. Cosgrave |  | Carlow–Kilkenny (until 1927) Cork Borough (from 1927) | 1934 | 1944 | |||
| 3 | Richard Mulcahy [lower-alpha 3] [lower-alpha 4] |  | Tipperary | 1944 | 1959 | |||
| John A. Costello (1948–1951) [lower-alpha 5] | ||||||||
| Éamon de Valera (1951–1954) | ||||||||
| John A. Costello (1954–1957) | ||||||||
| Éamon de Valera (1957–1959) | ||||||||
| 4 | James Dillon |  | Monaghan | 1959 | 1965 | Seán Lemass (1959–1966) | ||
| 5 | Liam Cosgrave |  | Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown | 1965 | 1977 | Jack Lynch (1966–1973) | ||
| Liam Cosgrave (1973–1977) | ||||||||
| 6 | Garret FitzGerald |  | Dublin South-East | 1977 | 1987 | Jack Lynch (1977–1979) | ||
| Charles Haughey (1979–1981) | ||||||||
| Garret FitzGerald (1981–1982) | ||||||||
| Charles Haughey (1982) | ||||||||
| Garret FitzGerald (1982–1987) | ||||||||
| 7 | Alan Dukes |  | Kildare | 1987 | 1990 | Charles Haughey (1987–1992) | ||
| 8 | John Bruton |  | Meath | 1990 | 2001 | |||
| Albert Reynolds (1992–1994) | ||||||||
| John Bruton (1994–1997) | ||||||||
| Bertie Ahern (1997–2008) | ||||||||
| 9 | Michael Noonan |  | Limerick East | 2001 | 2002 | |||
| 10 | Enda Kenny |  | Mayo | 2002 | 2017 | |||
| Brian Cowen (2008–2011) | ||||||||
| Enda Kenny (2011–2017) | ||||||||
| 11 | Leo Varadkar |  | Dublin West | 2017 | 2024 | Leo Varadkar (2017–2020) | ||
| Micheál Martin (2020–2022) | ||||||||
| Leo Varadkar (2022–2024) | ||||||||
| 12 | Simon Harris |  | Wicklow | 2024 | Incumbent | Simon Harris (2024–present) | ||
The Deputy leader of Fine Gael is a senior politician within the Fine Gael political party in Ireland. The post is currently held by Heather Humphreys, who was appointed deputy on 5 April 2024.
Like other political party leaders, the leader of Fine Gael has the power to appoint or dismiss their deputy. The position is not an elected one and is largely honorific.
| Name | Portrait | Constituency | Term of Office | Office(s) held | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tom O'Higgins |  | Dublin County South | 20 April 1972 | 14 September 1977 | |
| Peter Barry |  | Cork South-Central | 14 September 1977 | 26 March 1987 | Minister for the Environment Minister for Foreign Affairs Tánaiste |
| John Bruton | | Meath | 26 March 1987 | 20 November 1990 | |
| Peter Barry | | Cork South-Central | 14 January 1991 | 5 February 1993 | |
| Nora Owen |  | Dublin North | 3 March 1993 | 9 February 2001 | Minister for Justice |
| Jim Mitchell | | Dublin Central | 9 February 2001 | 17 May 2002 | |
| Richard Bruton |  | Dublin North-Central | 12 June 2002 | 14 June 2010 | |
| James Reilly |  | Dublin North | 1 July 2010 | 16 May 2017 | Minister for Health Minister for Children and Youth Affairs |
| Simon Coveney [2] |  | Cork South-Central | 13 June 2017 | 5 April 2024 | Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government Minister for Foreign Affairs Tánaiste Minister for Defence Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment |
| Heather Humphreys |  | Cavan–Monaghan | 5 April 2024 | Incumbent | |
Fine Gael is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éireann and largest in terms of Irish members of the European Parliament. The party had a membership of 25,000 in 2021. Simon Harris succeeded Leo Varadkar as party leader on 24 March 2024.
Ireland is a parliamentary, representative democratic republic and a member state of the European Union. While the head of state is the popularly elected President of Ireland, it is a largely ceremonial position, with real political power being vested in the Taoiseach, who is nominated by the Dáil and is the head of the government.
Liam Cosgrave was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 1973 to 1977, Leader of Fine Gael from 1965 to 1977, Leader of the Opposition from 1965 to 1973, Minister for External Affairs from 1954 to 1957, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce and Government Chief Whip from 1948 to 1951. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1943 to 1981.
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Richard James Mulcahy was an Irish Fine Gael politician and army general who served as Minister for Education from 1948 to 1951 and 1954 to 1957, Minister for the Gaeltacht from June 1956 to October 1956, Leader of the Opposition from 1944 to 1948, Leader of Fine Gael from 1944 to 1959, Minister for Local Government and Public Health from 1927 to 1932 and Minister for Defence from January to April 1919 and 1922 to 1924. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1938 and from 1943 to 1961 and a Senator from March 1938 to June 1938 and 1943 to 1944. He served in the cabinets of W. T. Cosgrave and John A. Costello.
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The 5th government of Ireland, commonly known as the First Inter-Party Government, was formed after the 1948 general election held to the 13th Dáil on 4 February. It was an Irish government of Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Clann na Poblachta, Clann na Talmhan and the National Labour Party—and one TD who was an independent, James Dillon. The parties had many different aims and viewpoints, but opposition to Fianna Fáil overcame difficulties in forming a government; Éamon de Valera had led a series of single-party Fianna Fáil governments since 1932. The cabinet was made up of representatives of all parties, and ministers were given a great degree of independence. Some key events during the lifetime of the government include the declaration of the Republic of Ireland in 1948 and the crisis surrounding the Mother and Child Scheme in 1951. It lasted for 1,212 days.
The 1997 Irish general election to the 28th Dáil was held on Friday, 6 June, following the dissolution of the 27th Dáil on 15 May by President Mary Robinson, on the request of Taoiseach John Bruton. The general election took place in 41 Dáil constituencies throughout Ireland for 166 seats in Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas, under a revision in the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1995.
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This is a list of records relating to the Oireachtas, the national parliament of Ireland, which consists of the President of Ireland, and two Houses, Dáil Éireann, a house of representatives whose members are known as Teachtaí Dála or TDs, and Seanad Éireann, a senate whose members are known as senators.
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Fine Gael is a political party in Ireland, formed in 1933 as a merger of Cumann na nGaedheal, the National Centre Party, and the Blueshirts.
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The 2020 Irish general election took place on Saturday 8 February, to elect the 33rd Dáil, the lower house of Ireland's parliament. The election was called following the dissolution of the 32nd Dáil by the president, at the request of the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, on 14 January 2020. The members, Teachtaí Dála (TDs), were elected by single transferable vote in multi-seat constituencies. It was the first election since 1918 to be held on a weekend.
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The 2017 Fine Gael leadership election was triggered in May 2017, when Enda Kenny resigned as leader of Fine Gael. Voting began by members of Fine Gael and Young Fine Gael on 29 May 2017. On 2 June Leo Varadkar was announced as the victor, beating rival Simon Coveney. With Fine Gael being the governing party at the time, this election effectively selected a new Taoiseach for Ireland.
