The Minister for Labour was originally the name of a government department in the Government of the Irish Republic, the self-declared state which was established in 1919 by Dáil Éireann, the parliamentary assembly made up of the majority of Irish MPs elected in the 1918 general election. Constance Markievicz was the first person to hold the post. The office was abolished in 1922.
The modern title of Minister for Labour was created by the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act, 1966 as a member of the Government of Ireland. The position was for many years a low key ministerial position. In 1993 the minister became the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, in 1997 the functions of the minister were passed to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on the abolition of the office.
Famous quotes containing the words minister and/or labour:
“[T]he dignity of parliament it seems can brook no opposition to it’s power. Strange that a set of men who have made sale of their virtue to the minister should yet talk of retaining dignity!”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Indeed, I thought, slipping the silver into my purse ... what a change of temper a fixed income will bring about. No force in the world can take from me my five hundred pounds. Food, house and clothing are mine for ever. Therefore not merely do effort and labour cease, but also hatred and bitterness. I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me. I need not flatter any man; he has nothing to give me.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)