Irish government departments explained

A department is an organisation; a grade is a job level

The Department of Health and the Department of Transport work on different subjects. Both can employ people at grades such as Executive Officer and Higher Executive Officer. Your department tells you the area of government you work in; your grade helps describe the level of responsibility.

New to the names? Keep the civil service glossary open for terms such as remit, policy, operations, division and escalation. Use civil service grades explained for CO, EO, AO, HEO, AP and PO.

The directory below covers all 18 departments listed in the official government directory, checked on 18 October 2026. These are short introductions, not complete lists of legal functions or a list of current vacancies. Department names and responsibilities can change.

All 18 Irish government departments

Select a department to jump to its explanation. Each entry links to its official website for current services, organisation charts and detailed responsibilities.

Why might you recognise different names?

Responsibilities can transfer between departments. Older documents may refer to Education, Enterprise, Trade and Employment, or Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform. Some official web addresses also retain an older name. Follow the current department website and the documents for your own competition rather than treating an old title as a separate department.

Finance and Public Expenditure are separate departments: broadly, Finance covers economic, tax and financial policy, while Public Expenditure covers spending management and public service reform. Likewise, Health is a department and the HSE is a separate public body.

Departments, offices, agencies and councils are different

The public service is wider than the 18 departments. Some public bodies deliver services, others regulate an activity, and some have specialist statutory functions. Their independence, staffing and accountability arrangements vary.

• Revenue: the Office of the Revenue Commissioners administers tax and customs. It is not a nineteenth department.
• Office of Public Works: the OPW works in areas including flood risk management, state property and heritage sites.
• Publicjobs: the Public Appointments Service provides recruitment services. It does not mean every candidate will work for Publicjobs after appointment.
• HSE: the Health Service Executive delivers and arranges public health and social care services. It is distinct from the Department of Health.
• Local authorities: city and county councils provide services such as local housing, planning and libraries. They have their own recruitment and grading arrangements.
• Education and Training Boards: ETBs provide education and training services. An ETB role should be read against that employer’s competition details, not assumed to use the civil service general-grade ladder.

The government directory separately lists agencies and local authorities. Use it to identify an unfamiliar body; this guide is not an exhaustive agency directory.

Who reports to whom inside a department?

A minister is responsible politically for a department. The Secretary General generally leads its civil service organisation. Assistant Secretaries lead major areas, with managers and staff organised into divisions, sections and teams. The actual structure depends on the department and the work.

An illustrative operational team might have COs reporting to an EO, that EO reporting to an HEO, and the HEO reporting to an AP. This is an example, not a universal rule: specialist teams and policy roles can be arranged differently.

In a scenario saying “you are an HEO managing two EOs and six COs, and your AP expects an update”, you manage the stated team and report upward to the AP. You do not need to know the real department’s organisation chart to identify those relationships. See line manager and direct report and delegated authority.

How this helps with test preparation

The purpose is to make the setting easier to understand. Learning every department name is not a substitute for reading the question, and this directory is not a prediction of assessment content.

1. Identify your role. Who do you manage, what can you decide and who can authorise something beyond your remit?
2. Identify the service. What does the team need to deliver, and who could be affected by delay, error or unfair treatment?
3. Use the stated facts. Do not invent an internal procedure, reporting line or approval requirement that the scenario does not give you.
4. Evaluate each action. Consider likely consequences, proportionality and responsibilities. Follow the response format in your invitation.

Continue with the plain-English glossary, our SJT preparation guide and the HEO online assessment guide. Then try a free SJT scenario or compare civil service grades and roles.

PublicServicePathway provides independent preparation. Your official competition booklet and assessment invitation determine eligibility, format and instructions.

Sources and update record

18 October 2026: directory names checked against the Government of Ireland directory. Responsibilities summarised from official department websites linked in each entry. The descriptions and workplace examples are original explanations.

Further detail: Enterprise responsibilities, Culture, Communications and Sport responsibilities, Justice responsibilities, and Public Expenditure responsibilities.

Use the current official website if a name or function has changed since this check. Tell us about a correction.