Dermot Christopher Ahern (Irish: Diarmuid Ó Eachthairn, or Diarmuid Ó hEichiarn; born 2 February 1955) is a senior Irish Fianna Fáil politician who currently serves as the Minister for Foreign Affairs. He has previously served as Minister for Community, Social & Family Affairs (1997–2002) and Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources (2002–2004). Ahern has been a Teachta Dála for Louth since 1987.

Dermot Ahern was born in Drogheda, County Louth in 1955. He was educated at the Marist College in Dundalk and later attended University College Dublin. He subsequently qualified with a degree in law from the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland before embarking on a successful career as a solicitor.

Ahern currently lives in Blackrock in Dundalk with his wife and their two children. His pastimes include playing golf and windsurfing. His skill at the latter is apparent as he is a former Ulster windsurfing champion. Ahern is also a former chairman of Blackrock United soccer club.He was also treasurer of Dundalk F.C. Supporter's Club.

Following the 1997 general election a Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats came to power and Ahern was appointed Minister for Community, Social & Family Affairs. He worked hard in this portfolio and secured more funds for his department due to the privatisation of Telecom Éireann, arguing that these funds should be secured for future pensions requirements. As Social Affairs Minister Ahern also introduced the largest social welfare and pension increases in Irish history. He also achieved pension rights for Irish people who had emigrated from Ireland prior to 1953.

 2002–2004: Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources

Following the return of the government at the 2002 general election Ahern was appointed Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources. In this post he was highly critical of the perceived failures of management and unions in the main telecommunications provider Eircom. He was an extremely interventionist minister in a telecoms market which, in his opinion, had experienced market failure. He introduced a system of Policy Directions to the telecoms regulator mandating, amongst other things, Flat Rate Internet Access. Ahern also devised and began implementing Ireland's Broadband Action Plan which entailed the government building an alternative fibre infractructure and co-location facilities. He sanctioned a reform package for public service broadcasting in Ireland and introduced a Charter for Ireland's national broadcaster Radio Telefis Éireann. He introduced a programme to provide free broadband internet access for every primary, secondary and special needs school in the State. Against the odds Ahern secured EU recognition and protection of the Irish Box, an area of Irish territorial waters out of bounds to Spanish and Portuguese fishermen.

 2004–present: Minister for Foreign Affairs

Following a cabinet reshuffle in 2004 Ahern received the coveted position of Minister for Foreign Affairs, thus becoming the first Louth TD to hold that position since Frank Aiken in the 1960s. Shortly into his tenure in April 2005 Ahern was appointed one of four special envoys for United Nations reform by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan. In effect the four envoys acted as Mr Annan's 'eyes and ears' around the world and presented proposals for reform at a special UN summit in September 2005. Ahern acted as envoy to European countries, on top of his other duties as minister.

Ahern has spoken of the 'Third Phase' in Irish foreign policy which he calls "Active Neutrality". This is a vision of non-aligned Ireland taking up its international responsibilities by acting as a bridge between the developed and developing world, and by acting as a world leader in conflict and disasters. [2] In this regard he took an extremely outspoken line on the crisis in Darfur, calling on the international community to 'wake up to the reality of rape, murder and destruction in the region. [3] More recently Ahern has announced the establishment of an Irish Volunteer Corps and a Rapid Response Corps which would harness existing expertise amongst the Irish public to assist in the developing world. Ahern is also a committed environmentalist who, for many years has recycled and composted all domestic waste [4]and has stated that, in foreign policy terms, ‘the single greatest, economic, environmental, geopolitical issue now facing us is climate change.’[5]

As Foreign Minister, Ahern has been heavily involved in the Northern Ireland peace process. Like many others in his party he describes himself as a republican and stated at the 2006 Seán Moylan commemoration in Cork that ‘as an Irish Republican my main personal and political goal is to live to see the unity of Ireland.’

As Foreign Minister Ahern has also lead a national campaign to secure a path to permanent residency for the 25,000 to 50,000 undocumented Irish citizens resident in the United States. He has also introduced free passports for Irish senior citizens and has called for a comprehensive ban on the use of cluster munitions.[6] Ahern was the first government Minister to call for a constitutional referendum on the issues arrising from the supreme court decision on statutory rape, five months before it became government policy.[7]

Ahern was appointed Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on the 7 May 2008 by the new Taoiseach Brian Cowen