Simon Harris: The ‘energetic communicator’ who's become Ireland's Taoiseach
After a whirlwind couple of weeks, Simon Harris has been elected Taoiseach by Dáil Éireann.
The Dáil voted for Mr Harris’s nomination on Tuesday before he traveled to the president’s residence in north Dublin for the appointment to be ratified.
The 37-year-old father of two has been described by Fine Gael colleagues as “energetic”, “a great communicator” and as having a “vision for Ireland that is about equality of opportunity”.
A media-savvy and personable politician who is well-versed on social media sites Instagram and TikTok, he has been at the helm of three departments over an eight-year period.
His visibility during his tenure as justice minister – covering for Helen McEntee while she was on maternity leave – fuelled speculation about his interest in a leadership bid for the so-called “law and order” party.
The former student of journalism at Dublin Institute of Technology has gone from writing headlines to making them.
As a young boy growing up in the seaside town of Greystones in Co Wicklow, he is said to have repeatedly said he wanted to be Taoiseach.
Mr Harris previously said his political story began when his younger brother Adam was diagnosed with autism and he began campaigning for better information and services.
After cutting his political teeth as an assistant to former justice minister Frances Fitzgerald when she was a senator, and then working as a councillor, he was elected to the Irish parliament as its youngest TD in 2011.
His maiden speech in the Dáil was to nominate Enda Kenny as Taoiseach.
He served as a junior minister in the Department of Finance from 2014 before being propelled to the role of minister for health in the Fine Gael-led minority government that was formed in 2016.
Health is known as one of the most difficult Irish ministries, and Mr Harris faced issues such as the ownership of the National Maternity Hospital, the spiralling cost of the National Children’s Hospital and a controversy around Ireland’s cervical cancer screening programme.
After the Irish public voted to liberalise its abortion laws in a 2018 referendum, Mr Harris was praised by campaigners as a strong voice for the Yes campaign.
In the February 2020 general election, he was returned on the 15th count and remained as a caretaker health minister.
In the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic, he urged people to wear face coverings and adhere to new rules, but was criticised for an absence of planning for nursing homes.
After incorrectly saying during a radio interview that Covid-19 meant there were 18 other coronaviruses, he recorded an Instagram live video in which he apologised and said he was an “awful old idiot at times”.
In the three-party coalition government, he became minister at the newly formed Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.
As higher education minister, he toured the country opening and speaking at educational institutions, and during his brief stint as justice minister he traversed bogs with families of the Disappeared.
During his inaugural speech as Fine Gael leader at the party’s annual conference last weekend, he told delegates his key priorities were housing, law and order and support for small businesses.
He also addressed recent tensions in Ireland over increased immigration rates, as he pledged to oversee a “fair” but “firm” system to manage migration into the country.
Mr Harris also spoke about his his wife Caoimhe, a nurse, and young children Saoirse and Cillian.
He also used his speech to issue a blunt message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying Ireland was “repulsed” by his actions.
As Taoiseach, he will take Leo Varadkar’s old title as the youngest-ever Irish premier.
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