Focus to shift to Coalition’s remaining time in office and preparations for next election when Dáil reconvenes after Easter with Harris as next taoiseach
Focus to shift to Coalition’s remaining time in office and preparations for next election when Dáil reconvenes after Easter with Harris as next taoiseachSimon Harris with Cllr Vicki Casserly, Emer Higgins TD and Frances Fitzgerald during a visit to Lucan, Co Dublin for a coffee morning. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins
It is understood that Ministers in the new cabinet will seek to focus on initiatives and policies that can reasonably be expected to be brought to a conclusion during the remainder of their term of office. Mr Harris said he is committed to fulfilling his party’s commitments to the Programme for Government when he becomes taoiseach.
One of the early issues for Mr Harris is likely to be a potential reshuffle of the Fine Gael Cabinet ministers. Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said he hoped to remain in Cabinet but added that was a matter for the new Taoiseach. Mr Harris will have one Cabinet vacancy – that created by the departure of Leo Varadkar – to fill, but will have to demote Ministers to create any more.The Minister of State with Responsibility for Special Education and Inclusion, who served in Cabinet, will become the 11th Fine Gael TD not to contest the next general election, and the 12th elected in 2020 to step aside from politics.
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