Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures

The Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures was the title of Frank Aiken as a member of the Government of Ireland during The Emergency — the state of emergency in operation in Ireland during World War II. The Minister was intended to handle Civil Defence and related measures, allowing the Minister for Defence to concentrate on matters relating to the regular Army. The office was also responsible for handling wartime censorship.

Technically, Aiken was a minister without portfolio, as there was no Department of State corresponding to his brief, although there was an Office of the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures. The Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act 1939, which allows for ministers without portfolio, also allows such a minister to have a specific style or title. In fact, Aiken had been appointed on 8 September 1939, and the Act was passed on 21 December 1939, backdated to 8 September. The Minister for Supplies, who did have a corresponding Department of State, was established on the same dates. The section in the Act on ministers without portfolio was seen by Richard Mulcahy as designed to safeguard the legality of Aiken's office.

Taoiseach Éamon de Valera explained the reasoning behind the ministry:

We have then the problem of defence, and to meet these problems of various kinds we thought it advisable to set up a Ministry for the co-ordination of various defensive measures. There was a special reason for that, because with the increase in the size of the Army it was desirable that the Minister for Defence should be in as close touch as possible with the Army and its condition. Questions were asked the Minister for Defence to-day which were right questions to be asked with regard to the conditions of the men called up, and so on. It was right that everyone should be interested in these conditions, and that there should be one person responsible for looking after those conditions, but he cannot do it if he is distracted by a number of other things. Therefore, it was decided that the Minister for Defence, at a time like this, should be free from other duties which might fall upon him, with a view to devoting his attention more closely to the Army and to its immediate requirements. To give us a Minister free to do that and, at the same time, to have someone charged with the general co-ordination of defensive measures, we asked the former Minister for Defence, as we asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce, to leave his immediate Department and take on wider spheres of activity. It is clear that the man who has been doing particular work for a period is the desirable person to put in charge.

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