irish minister for community, rural and gaeltacht affairs

The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs is the senior minister at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (An Roinn Gntha Pobail, Tuaithe agus Gaeltachta) in the Irish Government. The current Minister is amon Cuv, TD; he is assisted by Noel Ahern, Minister of State with special responsibility for Drugs Strategy and Community Affairs.

Overview

The Minister heads one of Ireland's newest Departments of State, established on 6 June 2002, with some 240 staff in 6 locations: mainly Dublin and Na Forbacha in County Galway. The Department has specific responsibility for a range of functions including:

Community Development Programmes
Local Development
the RAPID programmes,
Coordination of the National Drugs Strategy
Volunteering
Rural Development initiatives

The Department also retains the responsibilities previously held by the former Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands for

the Irish language
the Gaeltacht
the development of Ireland's inhabited off-shore islands.

Minister for the Gaeltacht 1956-1993

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office	Party
1.	Richard Mulcahy	June 2, 1956	October 24, 1956	Fine Gael
2.	Patrick Lindsay	October 24, 1956	March 20, 1957	Fine Gael
3.	Jack Lynch	March 20, 1957	June 26, 1957	Fianna Fil
4.	Michel Morin (1st time)	June 26, 1957	July 23, 1959	Fianna Fil
5.	Gerald Bartley	July 23, 1959	October 11, 1961	Fianna Fil
	Michel Morin (2nd time)	October 11, 1961	March 26, 1968	Fianna Fil
6.	Pdraig Faulkner	March 27, 1968	July 2, 1969	Fianna Fil
7.	George Colley	July 2, 1969	March 14, 1973	Fianna Fil
8.	Tom O'Donnell	March 14, 1973	July 5, 1977	Fine Gael
9.	Denis Gallagher (1st time)	July 5, 1977	December 11, 1979	Fianna Fil
10.	Mire Geoghegan-Quinn	December 12, 1979	June 30, 1981	Fianna Fil
11.	Paddy O'Toole (1sttime)	June 30, 1981	March 9, 1982	Fine Gael
	Denis Gallagher (2nd time)	March 9, 1982	December 14, 1982	Fianna Fil
	Paddy O'Toole (2nd time)	December 14, 1982	March 10, 1987	Fine Gael
12.	Charles Haughey	March 10, 1987	February 11, 1992	Fianna Fil
13.	John P. Wilson	February 11, 1992	January 12, 1993	Fianna Fil
14.	Michael D. Higgins (1st time)	January 12, 1993	January 21, 1993	Labour

Minister for Arts, Culture & the Gaeltacht 1993-1997

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office	Party
	Michael D. Higgins (1st time)	January 21, 1993	November 17, 1994	Labour
15.	Bertie Ahern	November 18, 1994	December 15, 1994	Fianna Fil
	Michael D. Higgins (2nd time)	December 15, 1994	June 26, 1997	Labour
16.	Sle de Valera	June 26, 1997	July 12, 1997	Fianna Fil