Members of the 30th Dáil and Ruairi Quinn (Lab). Following a vote, John O'Donoghue was elected to this position. The position of Taoiseach was contested by Bertie Ahern (FF) and Enda Kenny (FG). Following a vote Bertie Ahern was elected to this position, making it his third consecutive term in office. On 7 May 2008, Brian Cowen was elected Taoiseach in place of Ahern, who had resigned. Séamus Kirk was elected Ceann Comhairle on 13 October 2009 following the resignation of O'Donoghue. Government coalition parties are denoted by "●". This is a graphical comparison of party strengths in the 30th Dáil from January 2011, shortly
Government of Ireland government, including the Tánaiste, the deputy head of government, on nomination of the Taoiseach. The government is dependent upon the Oireachtas to make primary legislation and as such, the government needs to command a majority in the Dáil in order to ensure support and confidence for budgets and government bills to pass. The Government is also known as the cabinet. The current Taoiseach is Leo Varadkar who took office on 14 June 2017. He is the leader of Fine Gael, the party with the highest number of seats in the Dáil. Varadkar's government is a minority coalition, made up of