Department of Education and Youth

The official headquarters and ministerial offices of the department are at Marlborough Street, Dublin. The departmental team consists of the following:^[2]

• Minister for Education and Youth: Hildegarde Naughton, TD
  • Minister of State at the Department of Education and Youth with special responsibility for special education and inclusion: Michael Moynihan, TD
• Secretary General: Bernie McNally^[3]

The department has the following divisions:^[4]

• Internal Audit
• Special Education, NEPS and Redress
• People Division
• Finance, Corporate Services, Communications and Parents and Learners
• Schools, Social Inclusion and Youth
• Corporate Services
• Planning and Building Unit
• Curriculum and Assessment
• Major Operations
• Chief Information Officer
• Chief Inspector of Education

The following bodies are under the aegis of the department:^[5]

• An Chomhairle um Oideachais Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta
• Educational Research Centre
• National Council for Curriculum and Assessment
• State Examinations Commission
• Teaching Council
• National Council for Special Education
• CARANUA - Residential Institutions Statutory Fund
• Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse
• Residential Institutions Redress Board
• Residential Institutions Review Committee

In the revolutionary period, the position was established by Dáil Éireann in 1920 as the Minister for Irish.^[6][7] This was expanded as the Secretary for Education in the Government of the 2nd Dáil.^[8][9]

It was provided a statutory basis by the Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924, passed soon after the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. This act provided it with:^[10]

the administration and business generally of public services in connection with Education, including primary, secondary and university education, vocational and technical training, endowed schools, reformatories, and industrial schools, and all powers, duties and functions connected with the same, and shall include in particular the business, powers, duties and functions of the branches and officers of the public services specified in the Fourth Part of the Schedule to this Act, and of which Department the head shall be, and shall be styled, an t-Aire Oideachais or (in English) the Minister for Education.

It also assigned it with the following branches of administration:^[11]

• The Commissioners of National Education in Ireland
• The Intermediate Education Board for Ireland
• The Commissioners of Education in Ireland (Endowed Schools)
• The Inspector of Reformatory and Industrial Schools
• The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland (business and functions relating to Technical Instruction only).
• The College of Science
• The Geological Survey in Ireland
• The National Museum of Science and Art
• The National Library of Ireland
• The National Gallery of Ireland
• The Metropolitan School of Art
• Meteorological Services

In the early years of the state, the main focus was on running the national school primary system. Free secondary education was provided from 1968. The department also had the task of overseeing reformatory and industrial schools from 1922. The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, which reported in 2009 (the "Ryan Report"), found that this was rarely achieved.

The department's headquarters were situated within the grounds of Tyrone House, Dublin in what was formerly the home of the National Education Commissioners.