LAST UPDATE | 21 Dec 2022
TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has unveiled the Government’s Ministers of State today, with Fine Gael’s Jennifer Carroll-MacNeill and Kieran O’Donnell being promoted.
The planned appointments come after a low-key Cabinet reshuffle over the weekend which saw no new faces enter Government but some portfolio swapping with Tánaiste Micheál Martin stepping into Foreign Affairs.
The newest junior ministers, Carroll-MacNeill and O’Donnell, were promoted from the backbenches following the demotion of drugs minister Frank Feighan and international aid minister Colm Brophy.
Carroll-MacNeill, a TD for Dun Laoghaire, will go to the Department of Finance while O’Donnell, a TD for Limerick city, will go to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Feighan is being replaced in the drugs role by Chief Whip Hildegarde Naughton while part of Brophy’s position is being scrapped overall and replaced by a new Integration role.
There also has been a change in the European Affairs portfolio, with Fianna Fáil’s Thomas Byrne being moved out and replaced by Fine Gael’s Peter Burke, who was previously at the Department of Housing.
Byrne is now set to take up the job of Minister of State for Sport and Physical Education.
Fianna Fáil’s Seán Fleming is being moved from the Department of Finance to Foreign Affairs.
Green Party junior ministers Joe O’Brien, Ossian Smyth and Malcolm Noonan will all remain in place, with O’Brien taking on an additional role as Minister of State for Integration.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that Ireland faces “major challenges” ahead, including climate change, housing and the war in Ukraine.
“As I said on Saturday, we are living in an age of emergencies: climate, the war in Ukraine, housing, the cost of living, child poverty. There are also threats to the economy and employment, affecting every community in our country,” he said.
We must treat each challenge as a national emergency and deploy the full resources of the State, the full machinery of Government, to make an immediate and real difference.
“These Ministers of State will play a vital role in that response, and in delivering the remainder of the Programme for Government.”
Kerry Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin, who had been widely tipped for a role in the reshuffle, said that he was unable to take up a position for “family reasons”.
“It is with regret that I am unable to take on a ministerial position at this particular time due to family reasons. I will continue to carry out my duties as a TD for Kerry with commitment and dedication,” Griffin said in a statement.
“I wish my friend and colleague, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, every success in his important work for our country and I thank him for considering me.”
Ahead of the announcement this afternoon, Feighan confirmed that he would not be continuing on as a junior minister in a tweet.
“I wish to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste, Micheál Martin for the opportunity to serve as Minister of State with responsibility for Public Health, Wellbeing and National Drug Strategy,” Feighan said.
The Ministers of State appointed today are:
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