The Vice-President of the Executive Council () was the

deputy prime minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...

of the 1922–37

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...

, and the second most senior member of the Executive Council ( cabinet). Formally the Vice-President was appointed by the Governor-General on the nomination of the President of the Executive Council, but by convention the Governor-General could not refuse to appoint a vice-president whom the president had selected. The office of Vice President of the Executive Council was established with the establishment of the Free State in 1922. Under Article 53 of the Free State constitution the role of the vice president was to "act for all purposes in the place of the President", until the appointment of a successor in the event of his death, resignation or "permanent incapacity", or until his return in the event of his "temporary absence". However, in practice the vice president also held a second ministerial portfolio, whose duties he carried out when not called upon to become acting head of government. The president did not have the authority to advise the Governor-General to dismiss the vice president. Rather, as was the case with all other ministers, the entire Executive Council had to be dismissed and reformed if a president wanted to dismiss the vice president. While the Ministry of Dáil Éireann (1919–22) did not initially have a provision for a deputy president, when President of Dáil Éireann Éamon de Valera travelled to the United States in June 1919, he requested by letter that Arthur Griffith be appointed as Deputy President in his absence. De Valera resumed his position in the Dáil on 25 January 1921. The Provisional Government of Ireland (1922), Provisional Government of the

(1922), did not have such a position. In 1937, when the new Constitution of Ireland came into force, the office of Vice-President of the Executive Council was replaced with that of Tánaiste.

List of officeholders

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vice-President Of The Executive Council Of The Irish Free State Government in the Irish Free State Deputy prime ministers, Irish Free State Vice-Presidents of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State,

List of officeholders

See also

References