Ministers scramble to save jobs at top table
:: Harris and Bruton ‘should be rewarded with roles’
FINE GAEL Cabinet ministers are scrambling to save their jobs ahead of a series of meetings with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Senior ministers are being pitted against junior colleagues for the six coveted Cabinet seats in the next government.
It comes after Mr Varadkar said there is need for a “generational change” when selecting his next crop of ministers.
However, Mr Varadkar is also coming under pressure to appoint more women to Cabinet.
Mr Varadkar is to hold meetings with each member of the parliamentary party, and ministers yesterday indicated they would raise their positions with the Fine Gael leader.
Major briefing campaigns are under way as ministers and their supporters fight to ensure they remain at the Cabinet table.
Supporters of Health Minister Simon Harris and Climate Change Minister Richard Bruton insisted they should remain, given the work they have done for the party.
Mr Harris’s supporters say he should be rewarded with a senior ministry for his work on the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We were a beaten docket after the election and were able to negotiate from a position of strength owing to how we managed the Covid pandemic,” said a source.
The source said Fine Gael and Leo Varadkar’s recent surge in the opinion polls was in part due to the role played by Mr Harris and others in tackling the coronavirus.
Mr Bruton’s supporters have insisted he should remain in office due to the role he played in government formation talks, where he was central to finding a solution to the Green Party’s demand for a 7pc annual reduction in carbon emissions over the next 10 years.
“He would be an important addition to cabinet if they needed someone to iron out any rows on green issues and he also has a very strong economic background,” the source said.
The source said Mr Bruton could play a “Michael Noonan-style” role when a “cool head” is needed in the next cabinet.
Paschal Donohoe and Simon Coveney are the only two sitting ministers guaranteed to remain while there is speculation Heather Humphreys will also keep her seat in the next government.
But Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring is understood to be furious at the prospect of being sidelined by Mr Varadkar.
Mr Ring has highlighted to colleagues on a number of occasions that he was the only Fine Gael TD to top the poll on the first count in their constituency in the last General Election.
He has also spoken out strongly against the new government deal at several parliamentary party meetings.
Culture Minister Josepha Madigan’s supporters have also pointed out that she is the only member of Cabinet to bring in a second new TD after the last election.
However, there is speculation Ms Madigan, who is based in south Dublin, is expected to be ditched in favour of younger rural TDs such as Helen McEntee or Hildegarde Naughton.
Yesterday, Mr Varadkar declined to commit to ensuring a 50:50 split of men and women in his appointments, saying gender is one of a number of factors he will consider.
“If I am in a position to make appointments of course I will have to regard first of all always to ability, because that’s the most important thing, but also the need for generational change, for gender balance and also greater geographical balance which has certainly been a concern for my party in recent years.”
Asked about a gender-balanced cabinet, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan told the Irish Independent: “While of course these are matters for the Taoiseach and the party leaders, I know the three are mindful of the need for such balance in cabinet and they should strive to act accordingly.”
His predecessor, former
Tánaiste and current Fine Gael MEP Frances Fitzgerald, said “of course” Mr Varadkar and the two other party leaders should look to ensure a gender-balanced cabinet.
“I would like to see each of the party leaders making sure we have a critical mass of women in the cabinet. The obligation falls equally on them,” she said.
Ms Fitzgerald said it was “completely pathetic” that less than a quarter of TDs in the 33rd Dáil are women, a situation she described as “appallingly low”.
Fine Gael’s European Affairs Minister Ms McEntee, who is being tipped for promotion to cabinet, said: “Any conversation about gender balance, however, at cabinet has to take account of the number of women in the Dáil, which remains abysmally low.
“I want to see more women at every level in Irish public life, which means more female members, councillors, TDs and cabinet ministers.”
Fianna Fáil TD Anne Rabbitte, who was part of her party’s negotiating team and is being tipped for a promotion to cabinet, said: “I think it’s incumbent on the three leaders to ensure that there is a fair representation of females at the cabinet table.”
Michael Ring is understood to be furious