The new Government finally comes into power a day later than planned and just under two months after the general election on November 29th last.
Here is the new line-up:
Taoiseach: Micheál Martin
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin’s return to the role of Taoiseach got off to a turbulent start after an unprecedented 24-hour delay, following chaotic Dáil scenes over speaking rights for Independents supporting the Government.
But with the row over for now, the 64-year-old starts his new administration in full command of his party with a secure majority and confident of a full term for this administration, allowing for more rows and possible resignations along the way.
[ The Irish Times view on the chaos at Leinster House: a shambolic day in the DáilOpens in new window ]
A normally shrewd, savvy and ruthless operator when necessary, he is a great political survivor who has rebuilt the party after its disastrous 2011 election when it lost 57 seats. He is the longest-serving Fianna Fáil leader after Éamon de Valera.
Most political colleagues, even some of his fiercest critics, will always describe him as a “decent man”.
Vastly experienced, he has served not just as taoiseach and tánaiste, but also as a minister for education, enterprise and employment and health, and until now as minister for foreign affairs and defence. A member of Fianna Fáil’s front bench since 1995, he was first elected to the Dáil in 1989, before which he worked as a secondary schoolteacher.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade: Simon Harris
Ireland’s youngest taoiseach when he secured the job in March 2024 at the age of 37, Simon Harris moves to Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. With a lot of travel, this could be tricky for a party leader with ambitious backbenchers.
But with 22 of the 38 Fine Gael TDs new to the Dáil, and a prospective reshuffle when he rotates again to taoiseach, this should not be a problem. His new team will look to him as something of an elder statesman after 15 years in politics and an astoundingly rapid rise through the ranks.
A councillor at 22, a TD at 24 in 2011 and minister for health at the age of 29, he ran his local election campaign almost entirely on social media, winning the highest vote in the State.
The 2020 election was called before a vote of no confidence in him as minister for health could be taken. But his performance and communication skills during the ensuing Covid pandemic rehabilitated and burnished his image and his high profile eventually led to his moniker as the “TikTok taoiseach”.
His popularity ratings and those of his party took a hit with a series of mishaps in the election. Still, with 10 seats fewer than Fianna Fáil, he has done well to retain seven Cabinet seats and will have 26 months as taoiseach.
Minister for Finance: Paschal Donohoe
Paschal Donohoe (50) starts his third term as Minister for Finance, following his second stint at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, a further signal of the Government’s “stability” message.
Fine Gael TD for Dublin Central since 2011, he is now the party’s longest-serving Cabinet member and its most influential. An assured political and media performer, he is a skilled exponent of the “whatever you say, say nothing” philosophy.
Currently president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, a position he is expected to retain, he previously served as minister for transport, tourism and sport, and minister of State for European affairs.
First elected to Dublin City Council in 2004, he served a term in the Seanad from 2007 following an unsuccessful general election bid for the Dáil. In the last Dáil term he admitted to a breach in electoral rules by receiving a corporate donation in 2020 above the legal limit.
Affable and well-read, he writes book reviews for The Irish Times and other publications. A Trinity graduate, he previously worked as a sales manager for a multinational company.
Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service, Reform and Digitalisation: Jack Chambers
The State’s youngest minister for finance when he was appointed in June last year, Jack Chambers (34) previously served as a minister of state in the department with responsibility for financial services. He has been a TD since 2016 when he was elected as the youngest member of the Dáil in that election, having previously been a councillor and serving as mayor of Fingal.
Educated at the private Dublin boys’ school Belvedere College, Chambers has a degree in law and politics from Trinity College and graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland in 2020, completing his final medical exams while a TD.
He is from Castleknock in his Dublin West constituency and has had a rapid rise through the political ranks.
A protege of Micheál Martin, who appointed him as Fianna Fáil deputy leader, he is perceived as a steady hand. Generally low-key, he has shown his combative side in media interviews and Dáil rows. He has also served as minister of State for sport, the Gaeltacht and defence, and minister of State in the Department of Transport and the Department of the Environment.
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Peter Burke
Viewed as “solid”, “capable” and “steady”, Peter Burke (42) has, as expected, retained the Cabinet portfolio Harris first appointed him to, at a time when challenges for Ireland have intensified following the inauguration of US president Donald Trump.
At the outset of the Fine Gael general election campaign, he provoked controversy when Michael O’Leary launched the Longford-Westmeath TD’s own campaign and said there were “too many” teachers in the Dáil. The married father of two grew up on a farm near Mullingar and is a horseracing fan.
Popular within Fine Gael, Burke was first elected to the Dáil in 2016, after serving since 2009 as a Westmeath councillor and on Mullingar Town Council. Before his Cabinet appointment he served as minister of State for housing with responsibility for local government and planning and as a minister of State for European affairs. He graduated with a degree in commerce from NUI Galway in 2004, and worked as a chartered accountant for 10 years.
Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: Jim O’Callaghan
After huge speculation, Jim O’Callaghan has been confirmed as Minister for Justice in a newly expanded department that will include immigration. This is an issue he has been concerned with because of the tent city that grew around the IPAS (International Protection Accommodation Services) offices in Dublin city centre, part of his Dublin Bay South constituency.
The 56-year-old had made no secret of his ambition for the role but because of a difficult relationship with the leadership, doubt was cast on his chances. In 2020 he turned down the role of junior minister in the department, opting to remain on the backbenches.
A barrister and senior counsel, he is the party’s spokesman on justice and was Fianna Fáil’s legal adviser before his first election to the Dáil in 2016. Well regarded by his colleagues, he is a strong and incisive contributor to Dáil justice debates.
A brother of broadcaster and presenter Miriam O’Callaghan, he lives in Ranelagh and played rugby to a high level, representing UCD, Cambridge University, London Irish, Wanderers, Leinster and Connacht at senior level. He also represented Ireland at under-21 level. He holds degrees in law from UCD, Cambridge University and the King’s Inns.
Minister for Education: Helen McEntee
When Helen McEntee (38) won a Dáil seat in the 2013 byelection following the death of her father Shane McEntee, it was the first Fine Gael byelection victory while in government since 1977.
From Castletown, Co Meath, she is a DCU graduate and worked in financial services before becoming personal assistant to her father.
She served as minister of State for mental health and older people for a year and then as minister of State for European affairs when Leo Varadkar was taoiseach.
Appointed minister for justice in 2020, she focused on violence against women and implemented innovative anti-coercive control legislation.
She also became the first Cabinet member to take maternity leave while in office in 2021 and again for the birth of her second child.
Challenges in justice including migration, crime and public safety sparked sharp criticism, particularly following the riots in the capital in November 2023 which resulted in a Dáil vote of no confidence that she survived. She topped the Meath East poll in the 2024 general election.
[ Helen McEntee: The next Fine Gael leader in waiting?Opens in new window ]
Minister for Transport, Environment, Energy and Climate: Darragh O’Brien
Darragh O’Brien (50) is moving from housing to the Departments of Transport and Environment and Climate Change.
He is moving from one crisis – in housing – to another in the environment. There will also be much speculation as to whether he will be the Minister who finally gets the Dublin MetroLink under way.
From Malahide, Co Dublin, he has been involved in politics for 20 years, starting as a councillor on Fingal County Council in 2004 before his election to the Dáil in 2007. He worked in the financial services sector dealing with pensions as an area manager for Friends First Assurance Company, before entering full-time politics.
After losing his Dáil seat in the 2007 election, he successfully ran for the Seanad on the Labour panel before his re-election to the Dáil in 2016, when he topped the poll, building up a strong constituency base with his brother as a local councillor.
Ebullient and a political scrapper, he frequently came to verbal blows with his staunchest critic, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin.
Minister for Children, Disability and Equality: Norma Foley
Fianna Fáil will hope Norma Foley’s retention in Cabinet can solidify their standing in Kerry against the high-profile and effective Independent Healy-Rae brothers. During the election she came in for some criticism over conditions in the courthouse in Tralee. The 54-year-old TD grew up in politics following her father Denis Foley, winning a seat on her third attempt in 2020.
A secondary schoolteacher, she was appointed to Cabinet in her first Dáil term, during the Covid pandemic. The Junior Certificate exams were abandoned and there were errors in the coding of the Leaving Certificate calculated grades system, for which she was forced to apologise. The pandemic resulted in grade inflation in State exams, the final reset of which is expected this year. She leaves the department as the challenges of AI facing education intensify.
A low-key but assured performer, she held her cool and staunchly defended her initiative in the budget controversy over the €9 million phone pouches spend, which was ridiculed by the opposition and divided some in the teaching profession.
Minister for Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Patrick O’Donovan
Patrick O’Donovan (47) moves from Further and Higher Education to which he was appointed in June last year to a more high-profile job where his often blunt speaking has provoked strong reactions.
The Limerick county TD was first elected to the Dáil in 2011, having previously served as a county councillor. He trained as a schoolteacher and also worked as an industrial chemist.
In June 2023 he collapsed while taking questions in the Dáil and was rushed to hospital but recovered well.
With a reputation as a political street fighter, he was frequently sent out to bat for Fine Gael on controversial issues before his appointment as a minister of state. He served from 2016 as minister of state for sport and in 2017 was appointed as a junior minister in finance and public expenditure.
He also served as minister of State for the OPW, but had moved to the higher education portfolio when the controversy over the cost of the Leinster House bike shelter erupted.
Minister for Health: Jennifer Carroll MacNeill
Qualified as both a solicitor and a barrister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (44) also has a PhD in public policy. A strong media performer, she has frequently clashed with Sinn Féin in the Dáil and on the airwaves.
She is understood to have had a keen interest in the challenging health portfolio and will need all her qualifications and skills as she is expected to face significant challenges from day one in the job.
She joined Fine Gael as legal adviser when Enda Kenny was opposition leader and was elected to Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Council in 2019 before her election to the Dáil in 2020.
A prominent first-time Fine Gael TD, she was appointed minister of state for finance in 2022 before moving to the role of minister of state for European affairs and for defence.
During the 2020 election campaign she was harassed by a man who sent her sexually explicit videos and who was prosecuted and pleaded guilty to the offence, receiving a one-year suspended jail sentence.
She has a son with former Ireland rugby international Hugo MacNeill.
Minister for Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and the Marine: Martin Heydon
Martin Heydon (46) starts his fourth Dáil term with a promotion to full Cabinet role in the agriculture portfolio, where he has some experience.
His appointment makes him the first senior Minister in Kildare since Charllie McCreevy in 2004.
A member of Fine Gael’s government formation negotiations team, he is popular with and highly regarded by his party colleagues and the wider Dáil community. He has a level-headed approach to politics and rarely loses his cool in Dáil rows or arguments over the airwaves.
From a farming background, he is a graduate of Kildalton Agricultural College and served as minister of state in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in the last government.
He joined Fine Gael in 2008 and was elected to Kildare County Council in 2009 before his 2011 election to the Dáil. From 2016 to 2020, he was chair of the Fine Gael parliamentary party.
The father of four is married to former Kildare Gaelic footballer Brianne Leahy, a two-time All Star winner, and they live outside Kilcullen village.
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage: James Browne
James Browne’s involvement in the government formation talks for Fianna Fáil and his successful stewardship of the long-awaited Gambling Bill through the Dáil and Seanad undoubtedly contributed to his elevation to the senior ranks of Government.
A serious, no drama politician from Enniscorthy he studied hotel management and worked for a number of years in various roles in bars and hotels. Returning to study law, he qualified as a barrister in 2006.
He served as a Wexford county councillor from 2014 until 2016 when he was first elected to the Dáil and at the following two general elections.
Fianna Fáil spokesman on mental health, he introduced initiatives to reform mental health services in Ireland.
A minister of state in 2020 in the Department of Justice, he had responsibility for law reform and youth justice.
The 49-year-old also served on the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Mental Healthcare. He is the son of former TD and minister of state John Browne and his great uncle Seán Browne, was also a TD for Wexford, first elected in 1957.
Minister for Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Gaeltacht: Dara Calleary
Mayo Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary (51) gets a second chance as a senior Minister in Government with his appointment to the money-spending departments of Social Protection and Community and Rural Affairs.
Following the 2020 general election there was shock that he had been snubbed for a senior portfolio and was instead offered the role of chief whip.
Shortly afterwards he was appointed minister for agriculture following the sacking of Barry Cowen from the role.
But controversy erupted when he attended a parliamentary golf club dinner in Clifden in breach of Covid regulations and he stood down the day after the issue became public, only weeks after his appointment.
He was appointed minister of state for trade promotion, digital transformation and company regulation last year. From 2009 to 2011 he was minister of state for labour affairs and public service transformation.
Viewed as capable and calm and well like by his colleagues, he comes from a family of politicians, following his father Sean and grandfather Phelim into the Dáil.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science: James Lawless
The Kildare North TD James Lawless joins the Cabinet at the start of his third term as a TD. He was appointed a minister of state last year to the Department of Transport, and was involved in dealing with the aftermath of Storm Darragh and the chaos following the resultant closure of the Holyhead port.
Prior to his first election to the Dáil in 2016, he was a member of Kildare County Council for two years from 2014. He served as mayor of Naas during that period. Before becoming an elected representative, he was an activist campaigner on numerous commuter issues.
A barrister by profession having attended King’s Inn, he also worked for VHI Healthcare insurance. He has degrees in maths and computer science from Trinity College Dublin.
Originally from Wexford, he lives in Sallins with his wife Ailish, a primary schoolteacher. They have two daughters.
Attorney General: Rossa Fanning
Rossa Fanning SC (48) stays on as Attorney General, the Government’s legal adviser, following his initial appointment in 2022.
He has advised on a number of controversial areas including the failed referendums on carers and the family. In unpublished advice which later became public, he said there was legal uncertainty over the proposed word “strive” would be more forceful than “endeavour”, currently in the Constitution. He also advised that it would have “real effects” that could be enforced by the courts.
A graduate of Blackrock College in Dubin and UCD where he was auditor of the Law Society, he was a Fulbright scholar and came first in his class at the King’s Inns.
A specialist in commercial law, his expertise in insolvency cases and business disputes made him a key player in many prominent post-Celtic Tiger era cases. He became a senior counsel in 2016.
He was involved in high-profile cases involving some of the biggest names in corporate Ireland including Denis O’Brien, Larry Goodman, Dermot Desmond and Michael Smurfit and large multinationals such as Google and Facebook, along with financial institutions, investment funds and media companies.
The Super Juniors:
Hildegarde Naughton
Minister of State attending Cabinet with responsibility for Disability
Galway West TD Hildegarde Naughton and former government chief whip did not secure a senior Government portfolio but retains her seat at Cabinet as a Super Junior Minister covering Disability. Her reappointment means County Galway will have three Super Juniors with Independents also at Cabinet.
The former primary schoolteacher was elected to Galway City Council in 2009 and became mayor in 2011.
After an unsuccessful Dáil bid she was nominated to the Seanad in 2013 and in 2016 won a Dáil seat, elected again in 2020 and in 2024. In 2020 she was appointed as a super junior minister of state in the departments of climate change and transport, with responsibility for aviation and subsequently to health, where she had responsibility for drugs strategy.
Last year she was appointed government chief whip by Simon Harris when he took over as taoiseach.
An accomplished singer, she is a classically trained soprano singing with Bel Canto, a group she cofounded. She has also won awards for her performances in musical theatre.
Noel Grealish
Minister of State attending Cabinet with responsibility for Food Promotion, New Markets, Research and Development
After 22 years in the Dáil, Noel Grealish will sit at the Cabinet table as a Super Junior Minister in the Department of Agriculture.
The Galway West TD (58) has been a TD since 2002 when he was elected as a member of the Progressive Democrats and again in 2007 for that party, taking on the leadership role when then leader Ciarán Cannon decided to join Fine Gael. He stayed on as leader until 2009 when the party finally disbanded.
He has successfully held his seat as an Independent and his younger brother Tómas joined the Carnmore-based TD in politics when he was elected to Galway County Council.
The former owner of a glass company, he landed himself in hot water over comments about asylum seekers in Oughterard, but he has strong and loyal support and is viewed locally as having a very strong constituency work ethic.
Seán Canney
Minister of State attending Cabinet with responsibility for International and Rural Transport, Logistics, Rail and Ports
Former minister of State for the OPW and flood relief, Seán Canney, now takes on a Super Junior ministerial role in the Department of Transport.
He has advocated for the reopening of the Western Rail Corridor to trains from Galway to Claremorris.
The 64-year-old from Tuam, Co Galway comes from a farming family is a quantity surveyor by profession and worked in the private sector for 25 years. Before his election in 2016 to the Dáil, he was a lecturer in construction economics and quantity surveying.
Mr Canney said he had requested the restoration of the controversial travel and subsistence allowance, worth about €32,000 annually, to ministers of state. He said non-payment of the allowance penalised office holders.
“If you were going into a ministerial office over the past 10 years you ended up with less of an amount of money to do more.”
He served previously as a minister of State from 2016 to 2017 and again from 2018 to 2020 as a member of the Independent Alliance.
A county councillor from 2004 to 2015 including a year as mayor of Galway, he has also served on a number of boards and committees.
Mary Butler
Government Chief Whip and Minister of State attending Cabinet with responsibility for Mental Health
Waterford TD Mary Butler (58) becomes the Government’s Chief Whip.
From Portlaw, she ran a family grocery business for 17 years in the town.
She served as a local councillor from 2014 until her first election to the Dáil in 2016. When in opposition she was junior spokeswoman for older people and chair of an Oireachtas cross-party group on dementia. She opposed the legalisation of abortion in the 2018 referendum.
In the same year she introduced a private member’s Bill to ban tattoos and intimate piercings for people under the age of 18.
As minister for older people she introduced a range of legislation including safeguarding measures and expressed concern that families might be incentivised to put elderly relatives into care when minister for housing Darragh O’Brien proposed to allow tax-free rental of the homes of relatives in nursing homes.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our In The News podcast is now published daily – Find the latest episode here
