Taoiseach-designate Simon Harris has said he will consider a “range of factors” including gender and geography when deciding on his Cabinet reshuffle this week.
Mr Harris is expected to become Taoiseach on Tuesday when a Dáil vote is held after he is nominated by his party following the resignation of Leo Varadkar. He will then name his Cabinet members.
There are at least two vacancies, one arising from the elevation of Mr Harris from the Department of Higher Education to the Department of Taoiseach, and another arising from the decision by Simon Coveney to step down as Minister for Enterprise.
There has been speculation that Minister for Justice Helen McEntee may be moved out of the Department of Justice into another Cabinet position, but Mr Harris said on Sunday that he has not made up his mind.
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“This will become clear on Tuesday. Cabinet reshuffles are lonely and difficult decisions to make because I need to make them, and I alone can make them. I’ll be considering a range of factors, including and most importantly putting together a team of talent that can get on with the people’s business and deliver in the short amount of time that is available between now and the next general election,” he told RTÉ's The Week in Politics.
Asked about Ms McEntee’s position, he said: “I haven’t made any decision in relation to my reshuffle or my Cabinet appointments. But it’s not about personalities. It’s clearly about delivery.
“I will factor in lots of things, gender and geography, but the most important thing I need to factor in is ability: ability to do the job and ability to advance the agenda that I outlined on behalf of my party. These are difficult decisions and no matter what I do, somebody will think there was a different way of doing it. But I’ll do my very best to put a team both of ministers and ministers of state together and everybody in our parliamentary party will have an important role to play.”
[ Simon Harris: The five career moves that led him to the taoiseach’s officeOpens in new window ]
Mr Harris has also signalled that he intends to examine both the hate speech legislation and the new legislation to allow for longer opening hours for pubs. On the latter, he warned that he will not proceed with anything that could have an impact on the work of the gardaí.
“What I’d like to do on both is take a very brief period of time to engage with key stakeholders and obviously with the relevant Ministers,” he said.
The Wicklow TD said “it’s about making sure that the gardaí have the tools to protect people from hate crime like they do in other European countries, whilst also making sure that there’s no infringement on people’s freedom of speech. In relation to opening hours, I want to hear very clearly from the Road Safety Authority and from the gardaí because I will never do anything that will in any way make either of their jobs more difficult.”
He was also tackled on his pledge to deliver 250,000 new homes by 2030, a promise that he made during his speech at the Fine Gael ardfheis on Saturday.
“I do want to bring a renewed focus to the issue of housing and I did try to outline last night exactly how we need to do that. I made a promise that between 2025 and 2030 we will deliver 250,000 homes. That doesn’t mean that it will be a smooth delivery of 50,000 and 50,000 and 50,000 (a year.) What I’m saying though is that it is not just about setting a target. It’s about increasing the scale of ambition. It’s about saying to the people of Ireland, particularly the young people and the parents who have the son or daughter in the box room that we must do more and that we need to lift our ambition.”
He also signalled that supports for small businesses will be a key policy area.
“The first thing is this month we’re giving out a quarter of a billion euro in funding for small businesses. Around 143,000 businesses across Ireland are due to benefit. We’ve kept the paperwork minimal and want to get that money into people’s bank accounts very quickly. We’re also looking, and I’ve spoken to Heather Humphreys in relation to this, at the impact of the minimum wage change on PRSI rates where employers might feel they’re getting hit twice. I think we can make quick progress in relation to that.”
On migration, he said did not believe he would “swing right” and said “what we are doing here is making sure the systems work. Irish people are very fair. But immigration is a relatively new concept of this country.
“Ireland is not full and Ireland depends on immigration. Look around our hospitals look, around our hospitality sector. It’s really important to have a rules-based system. We need to work with other European countries so there’s an easier system in place to deport people who don’t have a right to be here. We need to provide people with clarity much more quickly. Can you be here? If you can, you’re welcome. And if you can’t, you need to leave.”
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