Micheál Martin
Micheál Martin is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician serving as Taoiseach since January 2025, having previously held the position from 2020 to 2022. Martin served as Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence from December 2022 to January 2025. He has been leader of Fianna Fáil since January 2011 and a TD for Cork South-Central since 1989. He previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2011 to 2020 and held various cabinet offices under Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen.
Born in Cork, Martin initially worked as a teacher before entering politics. He was elected to Cork City Council in 1985, and served as Lord Mayor of Cork from 1992 to 1993. In 1989, he was first elected to Dáil Éireann for Cork South-Central, a seat he has represented ever since. After the victory of Fianna Fáil at the 1997 general election, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern appointed Martin to cabinet as Minister for Education and Science. In 2000, Martin was appointed Minister for Health and Children. In 2004, during his time as Health Minister, Martin introduced a ban on tobacco smoking in all Irish workplaces, making Ireland the first country in the world to introduce a full workplace smoking ban. In the same year, Martin established the Health Service Executive. He served as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from 2004 to 2008, before being appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs by Ahern's successor, Brian Cowen. In 2009, Martin became the first Irish foreign minister to travel to Latin America, during which time he also made the first official visit to Cuba by any Irish minister. Martin also visited Khartoum during his time as Foreign Minister, following the kidnapping of Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki.
In January 2011, Martin resigned as Foreign Minister in protest at Cowen's leadership. Following Cowen's own resignation as leader of Fianna Fáil, Martin was elected to replace him. Weeks later, at the 2011 general election, Martin led Fianna Fáil to the worst result in its 85-year history, with a loss of 57 seats and a popular vote of just 17.4%. He remained in the leadership, becoming Leader of the Opposition. At the 2016 general election, Fianna Fáil's performance improved significantly, more than doubling their representation in the Dáil: Martin continued to serve as Leader of the Opposition.
Martin led his party through the 2020 general election, at which Fianna Fáil becoming the largest party in the Dáil by just one seat. After lengthy negotiations, he was appointed Taoiseach on 27 June 2020, leading a grand coalition with longtime rival party Fine Gael, marking the first time these two parties had governed together, along with the Green Party. Under the terms of the coalition agreement, Martin served as Taoiseach for the first half of the five-year term, with his predecessor Leo Varadkar as Tánaiste. Martin resigned as Taoiseach on 17 December 2022 to facilitate the appointment of Varadkar to the office.
In the 2024 general election, Fianna Fáil achieved the most seats in the Dáil; Martin was appointed as Taoiseach in January 2025 after a new coalition government was formed.
Early life
Martin was born on 16 August 1960 in Cork and was raised in the Turners Cross area. Martin was the son of Paddy Martin, a former soldier in the Defence Forces, CIÉ bus driver and Irish international boxer, and Eileen "Lana" Corbett. He was the third child in a family of five. Martin's eldest brother Seán and his twin brother Pádraig subsequently became involved in local politics in Cork. His two younger sisters, Eileen and Máiréad, have remained apolitical. Martin attended Coláiste Chríost Rí before studying arts at University College Cork.It was during his time at university that Martin became involved in politics. He was a prominent member of the UCC Cumann of Ógra Fianna Fáil, the youth wing of the party, before serving as national chairman of Ógra. After graduating with a BA degree, Martin completed an MA in political history. Subsequently, he completed a higher diploma in education, and began a career as a history teacher in Presentation Brothers College.
In 2009, he published his MA thesis as a book: Freedom to Choose: Cork and Party Politics in Ireland 1918–1932.
Early political career
Martin's time as a teacher was short-lived: he left after just one year to become a full-time politician, when he secured election to Cork Corporation as a Fianna Fáil candidate in 1985. It was from this local base that he decided to embark on a career in national politics a little under two years later. Martin was one of four candidates who secured the Fianna Fáil nomination to run in the Cork South-Central constituency at the 1987 general election; however, of the four he polled the fewest first-preference votes and failed to be elected. He became a member of the Fianna Fáil national executive in 1988.In 1989, Taoiseach Charles Haughey called a snap election, and Martin was once again added to the Fianna Fáil ticket in Cork South-Central, and on that occasion he secured election to Dáil Éireann. He has been re-elected at each election since.
In his first few years as a TD, Martin served on a number of Oireachtas committees, including those dealing with crime, finance and the Irish language. He served as Lord Mayor of Cork in 1992. Two years later, in December 1994, Bertie Ahern was elected as the new leader of Fianna Fáil, as the party lost power and went into opposition. Martin, however, joined Ahern's new front bench at the start of 1995 as Spokesperson on Education and the Gaeltacht.
Cabinet career (1997–2011)
Minister for Education and Science (1997–2000)
When Fianna Fáil returned to power following the 1997 general election, Martin was appointed to the newly expanded position of Minister for Education and Science. Aged 36, he was the youngest member of Bertie Ahern's first cabinet. As Minister for Education and Science, his tenure was characterised by an increase in spending at all levels of education, while a number of educational initiatives, such as a review of the primary school curriculum and the introduction of special needs assistants, were also initiated.Minister for Health and Children (2000–2004)
In a cabinet reshuffle in January 2000, Martin was appointed Minister for Health and Children. Martin's predecessor, Brian Cowen, described the position as "like being in Angola", because 'landmines' can go off at any time.Despite tough opposition, Martin introduced a ban on tobacco smoking in all Irish workplaces, including pubs and restaurants. On 30 January 2003 he announced his intention to have the ban in place on 1 January 2004. He visited New York in September 2003 to look at how a similar ban worked there, and signed the UN's framework convention on tobacco control at their headquarters. The smoking ban was introduced on 29 March 2004, making Ireland the first country in the world to introduce a blanket ban on smoking in the workplace. On 4 September 2004 Martin was presented with an award for his work on the smoking ban by the European Respiratory Society in Glasgow.
He introduced an overhaul of the health system, which included the abolition of the health boards and the establishment of the Health Service Executive. He deregulated the country's pharmacies on 31 January 2002.
In October 2003, Martin promised to examine cases of symphysiotomy in Irish hospitals which occurred during the 1940s and 1950s, and offered free health care to those affected.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (2004–2008)
In September 2004, he exchanged government positions with Mary Harney, to become Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The following September, the government's economic record on the cost of living came under scrutiny from the RTÉ television programme Rip-Off Republic. This led to Martin abolishing the controversial Groceries Order 1987, a piece of legislation which prohibited the sale of groceries below cost price.Letters containing death threats and shotgun cartridges, from a group calling itself the Irish Citizens Defence Force, were posted to Martin on 29 February 2008, at a prominent Dublin fertility clinic.
Minister for Foreign Affairs (2008–2011)
On the resignation of Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach in May 2008, Martin supported Brian Cowen's bid for the Fianna Fáil leadership.In a cabinet reshuffle on 13 May 2008, following the election of Brian Cowen as Taoiseach, Martin became Minister for Foreign Affairs. One of the first issues that he had to deal with was the referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon.
Martin led the government campaign. Despite the overwhelming majority of government and opposition parties supporting a Yes vote, the electorate rejected the government's recommendation. Martin and Cowen failed to convince the Irish public to support the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, and this protest expressed in the referendum on 12 June 2008 plunged the government into a major political crisis.
In February 2009, Martin travelled to Latin America for the first time, making stopovers in Mexico and Havana; it was the first time an Irish government Minister had made an official visit to Cuba.
In September 2009, he travelled to Khartoum to discuss the kidnapping of Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki with the Sudanese government.
On 7 February 2010, he defended the €4.4 million redevelopment of the Irish embassy in Ottawa, Canada. While in Brussels on 22 February 2010, he questioned Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel Avigdor Lieberman over the use of fraudulent Irish passports in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
On 17 March 2010, he met President of the United States Barack Obama in the White House, alongside Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
On 26 May 2010, he met with senior Chinese leaders in Beijing, to discuss relations between China and Ireland, before travelling onward to Shanghai. While there, he visited the Irish pavilion at Expo 2010 in the city.
On 28 June 2010, he began a five-day trip to Uganda and Ethiopia, where he visited buildings and met ministers and businesspeople.