Ireland
The Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act, 1939 (Section 4) allows a member of the Government of Ireland not to have charge of a Department of State; such a person is referred to as a "Minister without portfolio" (Irish: Aire gan Cúram Roinne). Such a minister may nevertheless be given a specific title. The only substantive minster without portfolio has been Frank Aiken, the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures during World War II. By the Emergency Powers Act 1939 then in force, the Minister for Defence was able to delegate some competences to him. Such delegation is now done instead with Ministers of State: "junior ministers" who are not members of the government. Junior ministers can be given a right to sit at cabinet; they are often known colloquially as "super-juniors." This allows the Government to circumvent the Constitutional limit on the number of Senior Ministers.
On several occasions a minister has been appointed to an incoming government with the title of a new Department of State. Between the date of appointment and the date of creation of the department, such a minister was technically a minister without portfolio. Examples include:
| Title | Govt | Minister | Appt to govt | Dept created | Dept |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minister of Economic Planning and Development | 21st Dáil | Martin O'Donoghue | 8 July 1977 | 13 December 1977 | Department of Economic Planning and Development |
| Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform | 31st Dáil | Brendan Howlin | 9 March 2011 | 6 July 2011 | Department of Public Expenditure and Reform |
Read more about this topic: Minister Without Portfolio
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