New specific Minister of State responsibilities in immigration, marine, older people and energy will be established to accommodate the record number of Junior Ministers that will be in the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael coalition.
There will be record number of 23 Ministers of State in the Government. They will be appointed at this week’s Cabinet meeting. There were 20 Ministers of State in the outgoing government. There were also 20 Junior Ministers in the 2007 government, but that number was subsequently reduced to 15, and then to 13, following the downturn in the economy from 2009.
There are five outgoing Fine Gael Junior Ministers and they will be reappointed, according to sources. Among those who are tipped for possible promotion are Cork South Central TD Jerry Buttimer, Sligo-Leitrim TD Frank Feighan, Waterford TD John Cummins, and new TDs including Catherine Callaghan in Carlow-Kilkenny and James Geoghegan in Dublin South Central.
A number of Fianna Fáil TDs are in contention for promotion including Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan); Timmy Dooley (Clare); Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North Central); Christopher O’Sullivan (Cork South West); Michael Moynihan (Cork North Central); Jennifer Murnane O’Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny); Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire); and Catherine Ardagh (Dublin South Central).
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Fianna Fáil’s Brendan Smith is expected to be his party’s nominee for the Leas-Cheann Comhairle position.
The Government is also expected to put a big emphasis on forging a strong relationship with the UK amid reports that the Labour government is facing growing pressure to improve it trade relationship with Ireland and the European Union.
The plan to move responsibility for housing asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees to a Junior Minister portfolio has been criticised by Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman, who held the post of minister for integration in the last government. A Fine Gael TD is expected to be appointed as Minister of State for migration in the coming days. Mr O’Gorman said the change means there would no longer be “direct advocacy” on the issue around the Cabinet table.
The decision to move the immigration portfolio back into the Department of Justice – which was responsible for accommodating and supporting asylum seekers between 2000-2020 – has caused wider concern.
UCD professor of migration and social policy Bryan Fanning believes the overhaul turns supports for these newcomers into a “law, order and security” issue. “Justice has no expertise in social policy or engaging with community groups; it is historically very poor at this,” said Prof Fanning.
He said the lack of Government commitments to promote integration beyond the “implicit expectation that the voluntary sector will step up to help integrate newcomers” is also contributing to the “politicisation of immigration”.
Olivia Headon, a spokeswoman for volunteers who have worked with homeless asylum seekers in Dublin since early 2024, said the new Government’s policy on immigration and housing asylum seekers was “reflective of conservative European politics” when it should focus on measures that are “beneficial not only for newcomers but for us, as the host nation”.
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