Politics

New Fine Gael ministers to be asked to prioritise small number of issues after Cabinet reshuffle

Focus to shift to Coalition’s remaining time in office and preparations for next election when Dáil reconvenes after Easter with Harris as next taoiseach

Simon Harris with Cllr Vicki Casserly, Emer Higgins TD and Frances Fitzgerald during a visit to Lucan, Co Dublin for a coffee morning. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins

Pat Leahy
Sat Mar 23 2024 - 06:00

With the election of Simon Harris as Fine Gael leader all but certain to be completed on Sunday, political focus is moving quickly to a possible Cabinet reshuffle and the prospects for the remaining period in office of the Coalition.

Fine Gael Ministers in the new cabinet will be asked to prioritise a small number of issues that can be finalised before the next election, it is expected.

It is understood that Ministers in the new cabinet will seek to focus on initiatives and policies that can reasonably be expected to be brought to a conclusion during the remainder of their term of office.

Mr Harris will become Fine Gael leader, and presumptive taoiseach, on Sunday when the nominations process closes a day earlier than originally planned.

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Mr Harris – who is set to become at 37 the youngest-ever taoiseach when the Dáil reconvenes after the Easter recess – will address Fine Gael members at the party’s European election selection convention for the Midlands-North-West constituency in Athlone tomorrow.

Mr Harris said he is committed to fulfilling his party’s commitments to the Programme for Government when he becomes taoiseach.

Asked if there will be a general election later this year, he said he was not ruling anything in or out for now but the timing of an election was not a priority.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said that he would “seek assurances concerning the agreements between the three parties and the core principle of respect for each element of the Government”.

[ Simon Harris and his team got up early in the morning to hatch a ‘shock and awe’ leadership plan ]

One of the early issues for Mr Harris is likely to be a potential reshuffle of the Fine Gael Cabinet ministers. Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said he hoped to remain in Cabinet but added that was a matter for the new Taoiseach.

Asked if it was necessary for him to stay in Cabinet to keep his role as head of the Eurogroup – the group of finance ministers whose countries use the single currency – as is widely assumed in Brussels, Mr Donohoe said he hadn’t “thought that far ahead”.

He added, however, that it has been the practice for the head of the Eurogroup to be a finance minister.

Mr Harris will have one Cabinet vacancy – that created by the departure of Leo Varadkar – to fill, but will have to demote Ministers to create any more.

Meanwhile, Opposition parties stepped up their demands for a general election.

Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said the case “couldn’t be clearer now”.

On Friday former Cabinet minister Josepha Madigan resigned her ministerial role and said she will step down from politics at the next election.

The Minister of State with Responsibility for Special Education and Inclusion, who served in Cabinet, will become the 11th Fine Gael TD not to contest the next general election, and the 12th elected in 2020 to step aside from politics.

The Dublin Rathdown TD said in a social media post she had told Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last summer that she would not be running again.

Last month, Ms Madigan, who has endorsed Simon Harris as taoiseach , failed to secure a place on the Fine Gael ticket for the Dublin constituency in the upcoming European elections.

Mr Varadkar paid tribute to Ms Madigan as an “extremely hard-working Fine Gael public representative”.

“We first met at a Strictly Come Dancing charity fundraiser in South Dublin back in 2015 when she was a candidate for the Dáil. My partner, Matt, was one of the competitors. Shane Ross TD, then in Opposition, was a judge. We hit it off and have been friends ever since. She is easily one of the kindest and most empathetic politicians I know. Sometimes kindness in politics is seen as weakness. I believe it is one of her strengths,” he said.

Pat Leahy

Pat Leahy

Pat Leahy is Political Editor of The Irish Times

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