Simon Harris, the newly appointed Irish Prime Minister, has recently introduced four new members to the ministerial team of the Fine Gael party. So, who are these individuals and how qualified are they for these roles?
The first new addition is Peter Burke, who has been designated the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The lead representative for Longford-Westmeath, Burke was a favourite candidate for a superior cabinet role in the governmental overhaul led by the new Taoiseach. Rightly so, he has been accorded the position of Minister for Enterprise, a notable vacant rank in the cabinet.
A familiar face within Fine Gael, his colleagues perceive Burke, a two-time TD, as credible and reliable. A family man with two children, Burke, 41, spent his childhood on a farm near Mullingar and is an aficionado of horse racing. He completed his commerce degree at NUI Galway in 2004 and later qualified as an accountant. Burke’s initial victory in politics came in 2009 when he was elected to the Westmeath County Council.
When he entered the Dáil for the first time in 2016, he was quickly re-elected in 2020. Initially, Burke served as the Minister of State for Housing, tasked with local government and planning oversight. Once Leo Varadkar, the previous Fine Gael leader, became Taoiseach in December 2022, Burke was promoted to the role of Minister of State for European Affairs. Alongside his colleagues Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Martin Heydon, he contributed to an op-ed in the Irish Independent endorsing a tax cut for families valued at €1,000, four months before the previous year’s budget announcement, to the ire of their Fianna Fáil coalition partners.
Burke was swift in supporting Simon Harris as his successor when Varadkar announced his departure. Speaking on RTÉ, the Wicklow TD was, he claimed, “undoubtedly” the best choice to guide Ireland and the Fine Gael party.
Burke assumes his role at the Department of Enterprise during a period where Fine Gael have pledged increased backing for small businesses. Despite recent job losses in the tech industry, Ireland enjoys near-full employment. The updated Minister will aim to sustain this success, anticipating the forthcoming general election.
The second new member is Patrick O’Donovan who has now assumed the role of Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.
Patrick O’Donovan has taken over Harris’s previous role as Minister for Higher Education, ensuring that a member of the Fine Gael party continues to maintain their place at the Cabinet within the Munster region, following the exit of Simon Coveney. This development is held in high esteem by some party members, particularly considering the recent electoral struggle the Fine Gael party has faced in that region.
O’Donovan, first introduced to the Dáil in 2011, hails from Limerick County and has a history in county council service. Balancing his professional role with a family of three children, the 47-year-old former schoolteacher has earned a name for himself in political circles.
Known for his keen political strategies, O’Donovan often represents Fine Gael on media platforms. His appointment to the post of State Minister for Sport came in 2016, followed by a role as Junior Minister in finance and public expenditure the subsequent year.
His recent duties as Junior Minister encapsulated oversight for the Office of Public Works (OPW), handling flood response as well as organising modular homes for refugees from Ukraine.
In 2021, media sources identified O’Donovan as a participant in a supposed ‘sting operation’ designed to discover a Cabinet leak. However, when queried on Live 95 radio, O’Donovan avoided commenting on any matters related to the Fine Gael parliamentary party.
Matt Carthy of Sinn Féin in the Dáil, accused Harris of leaking information regarding the appointment of ex-Independent minister Katherine Zappone as a UN representative and implied that he could be the target of a Fine Gael sting operation.
When questioned about the situation, the newly appointed Fine Gael leader dismissed any influence of such ‘rumour mills’ on his decision-making, insisting he is focused on constructing the most effective team. O’Donovan himself stated that he has always enjoyed a healthy relationship with the party leader.
The recent reshuffle by the new Taoiseach did not appoint a senior Minister for Connacht, a role that has been vacant for the majority of the current coalition’s term. Hildegarde Naughton has been appointed the Government Chief Whip and Minister of State, with responsibilities extending to special education and inclusion.
Hildegarde Naughton, a TD for Galway West, will retain her position as a Super-Junior Minister, securing her place at the Cabinet. She is set to oversee the area of special education and inclusion which was left vacant following the departure of Josepha Madigan last month.
When announcing Naughton’s new position, Harris made it clear to the Dáil that special education would become a key focus. Naughton has held the Super-Junior Minister role since the Coalition gained control in 2020, initially taking on transport, and later moving on to health, including the drug strategy.
In her past, Naughton openly admitted to experimenting with drugs, confirmed she tried cannabis in her twenties but concluded it wasn’t for her. From the 2022 reshuffle, she acted as the Government Chief Whip, where she was responsible for rallying the required votes for the Coalition—currently a slight majority in the Dáil—to pass laws and fend off no-confidence motions from the Opposition.
Seán Ó Fearghaíl, Ceann Comhairle, has previously commended Naughton for her work in preventing any legislative delays before Dáil breaks. Naughton, a former primary school teacher studied French and economics at NUI Galway.
First elected to Galway City Council in 2009, she served a term as mayor before being appointed to the Seanad by then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny in 2013. Her first election to the Dáil was in 2016. Naughton, aged 46, is also a classically trained soprano singer and member of the group Bel Canto, seeing music as her equivalent to golf.
Meanwhile, Dún Laoghaire TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has been appointed as the Minister of State for European Affairs, a notable Junior Minister role within the Government. This role often involves preparing for European summits and EU duties, frequently requiring travel to Brussels and other EU destinations alongside the Taoiseach.
Also taking the role of Minister of State for Defence, the parent of a single child, who is married to ex-Irish rugby celebrity Hugo MacNeill, is in her debut term as a Member of Parliament. Carroll MacNeill, who is 43, has often been considered as an emerging talent within Fine Gael.
Having been elected as a councillor in 2019, she provided advisement to previous Taoiseach Enda Kenny along with other prior cabinet members of Fine Gael. In being a professional barrister, Carroll MacNeill had been anticipated as a likely successor for the Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, had she been relocated during the reshuffle.
Amidst the electoral campaign of 2020, one man had been giving her unsolicited explicit video content. By 2022, Gerard Culhane, residing at Marian Place, Glin, Co Limerick, who was a 43-year-old at the time, confessed to the crime and was sentenced to one-year imprisonment, which was suspended with rigid terms of no communication with Carroll MacNeill.
During the legal proceedings, while conveying a “chill of apprehension” she had experienced in the election campaign, Carroll MacNeill stated she had no intention of being perceived as “a victim”.
In 2022, Carroll MacNeill was appointed to the position of Minister of State for Finance by her predecessor, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Widely recognised within Fine Gael for her strong presence in the media, she has on numerous occasions disputed with Sinn Féin both in the Dáil and over media broadcasts.