There is little chance of a grace period being afforded to each of the three senior Cabinet Ministers who now find themselves acclimatising to the Departments of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Education.
Simon Harris, Helen McEntee and Hildegarde Naughton are all responsible for shepherding new departments which, in their own ways, all bear responsibility for some of the biggest political challenges that this Government faces.
Helen McEntee
As she becomes the first woman to be Minister for Foreign Affairs, Helen McEntee has the high profile issue of the Occupied Territories Bill at the top of her in-tray.
In the minds of the public, the Bill has become a proxy for how the Irish Government has responded to the genocide in Gaza. Just this week, the Opposition has come together to pressure the Government to pass the long delayed Bill, which would prohibit the importation of goods from the occupied Palestinian territories.
RM Block
Ms McEntee will come under pressure on the inclusion of services in the Bill – a complicated proposal on which the Government has sought the advice of the attorney general.
Ms McEntee now leads the department which has responsibility for the policy and operational planning in advance of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union between July and December next year. Her department is also responsible for Ireland’s campaign to be elected to the UN Human Rights Council for 2027–2029, in advance of the election in October 2026. The trade aspect of her new portfolio will be dominated by the ongoing and unpredictable threat of tariffs.
Ms McEntee is also tasked with nurturing and continuing to repair relations between the Irish and British Governments, which were fragmented during Brexit. An important duty will be overseeing the implementation of The Legacy of the Troubles, a joint framework between the Irish and UK governments which was published in September.
Ms McEntee is also the new Minister for Defence, and as well as the ongoing issue of the strength and capability of the Defence Forces, she will also have the high profile and controversial plan to change the Triple Lock on her desk. This will likely plunge the Government into a broader debate about Ireland’s neutrality and how that is and is not safeguarded.
As Minister for Defence, she will also have to interact with the ongoing Defence Forces Tribunal, which was initiated by the issues raised by the Women of Honour group.
Simon Harris
With Budget 2026 delivered by his predecessor, Paschal Donohoe, and the Finance Bill 2025 to give effect to many of those proposals now through committee stage in the Dáil, the Tánaiste has arguably become Minister for Finance at a good time in the department’s annual cycle.
However, Mr Harris will already be alive to many of the macroeconomic issues that his department and the Government faces: Ireland’s ongoing dependence on volatile corporation tax receipts; the economic unsustainability of the country’s ageing population; the ongoing demands that migration is placing on our infrastructure and housing stock.
Mr Harris will also be conscious that the fortunes of the Coalition will be tethered to the success of its investment in infrastructure, so he will need to work closely with his fellow money minister Jack Chambers on the upcoming Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce.
Hildegarde Naughton
Hildegarde Naughton takes the reins at the Department of Education at a difficult time of year for families of children with additional needs, who may just be starting a painful and possibly fruitless process of trying to secure a school place for their children next September.
The number of children who cannot access a place will be how many parents measure the success or failure of this Government. The Department of Education is also in the middle of a complex and ongoing debate about what “inclusion” means in the context of education: is it continuing to grow the number of special classes and schools which meet children’s needs, or is it ensuring that more children with additional needs attend their local mainstream school?
This is happening against the backdrop of issues with the capacity of secondary schools in certain parts of the country, reform of relationships and sexuality education and bringing Leaving Certificate grades back to pre-pandemic levels – all those will all be in her in-tray. Bread and butter issues for parents like school running costs and “voluntary” contributions will also command some of her attention.
Ms Naughton is running the parent department for the Commission of Investigation into the Handling of Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Schools, and a mooted State-funded redress scheme to go with it. If this redress scheme were to go ahead, it would be one of the most expensive redress schemes in the State’s history.
This has already raised alarm among some officials, including those in the Department of Public Expenditure. It will be a difficult, demanding and maybe determining issue for Ireland’s newest Cabinet Minister.
