Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is to move to improve the ratio of women in government when naming 23 junior minister positions today.
Both Government parties, however, have privately admitted the scope for substantial change will be limited. They were criticised after the new Cabinet was revealed to include just three women out of 15 ministers – one less than the four in the previous government.
The full list of junior ministers will be announced after today’s Cabinet meeting. Unlike, senior ministries, the junior positions are chosen by the Government as a whole and not by the Taoiseach.
It is likely that three Ministers of State will have to remain “in reserve” and will not be able to take up their roles until legislation is passed allowing for 23 as opposed to 20 junior ministers.
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Of the 23 positions, it is expected that seven or eight will be filled by women, which is still well below the 60:40 target ratio for gender balance in Irish electoral and parliamentary politics.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he would be “working strong” on gender balance in his appointments of junior ministers, of chairs of Oireachtas committees and in selecting the Taoiseach’s 11 nominees to Seanad Éireann.
Fianna Fáil will have 10 junior ministers; Fine Gael will have eight; with the remaining five having already been assigned to the Regional Independents Group.
Three women have already been announced as junior ministers: Fianna Fáil Waterford TD Mary Butler as Government Chief Whip, Fine Gael’s Hildegarde Naughton as a super junior and Independent TD Marian Harkin as a junior minister.
Senior sources in Fianna Fáil say that the Cavan-Monaghan TD Niamh Smyth is a certainty to be promoted to the junior ranks, along with Jennifer Murnane-O’Connor, of Carlow-Kilkenny, or Dublin South-Central TD Catherine Ardagh or both.
Fine Gael’s Emer Higgins, of Dublin Mid-West, is expected to be reappointed, possibly to her current role as minister with responsibility for business, employment and retail.
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Two new TDs, Maeve O’Connell of Dublin Rathdown and Emer Currie (Dublin West), have also been tipped as possibilities for promotion by senior colleagues in Fine Gael.
There are some Minister of State positions that reflect which party holds the Taoiseach role. As a consequence, the high-profile role of Minister of State for European Affairs will be held by Fianna Fáil, which will also get the junior ministry for sport as the senior minister is from Fine Gael.
There will be three new specific junior roles for marine, immigration, and energy.
Fine Gael will be expected to get at least one of the two junior roles in the Department of Justice, probably the new role of Minister of State for Immigration.
On the Fine Gael side, Alan Dillon, Neale Richmond, Colm Burke and Kieran O’Donnell are expected to be reappointed, although Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central) and the Waterford TD, John Cummins, have been mentioned.
Among Fianna Fáil TDs, Timmy Dooley (Clare), Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West), Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire); Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West) and Catherine Ardagh (Dublin South-Central) are all in contention for roles.
Five of the Minister of State roles have been taken by members of the Regional Independents Group.
Two of the group, Seán Canney and Noel Grealish, are super-junior ministers, with the remaining three positions having been taken by Ms Harkin, Longford-Westmeath TD Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran and Kerry Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae.
The Ministers of State will be paid an additional €45,846 on top of their TD’s salary of €113,679.
In addition, the four “super-junior” minister to be appointed – who have the right of attendance at Cabinet but are not formally members and do not have command of a full government department – will each receive a further top-up of €13,145 a year in salary.
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