Ministers and Secretaries Act

Ministers and Secretaries Act (1924), a cornerstone of the Irish administrative system. Its genesis lay in the conviction of the first generation of Irish officials that the machinery of government inherited from Britain was uncontrollable and inefficient. Their solution was to reduce the number of departments, from over 40 to just 11, and to enshrine in law the doctrine that each minister was a ‘corporation sole’, responsible for all the acts of his officials (other than in certain areas of tax and social welfare administration). The Devlin Report of 1969 was highly critical of this, claiming that it engendered overcentralization in government and meant that ministers and their top officials became mired in detail at the expense of Olympian consideration of long‐term policy. Critics have so far been unable to formulate an alternative principle for national administration which would secure greater flexibility without diluting either political control or public accountability.

Eunan O'Halpin