‘Work experience’ TD to leader of party and country
LEO Varadkar handed over the reins to Simon Harris yesterday, saying: “I always knew he would be Taoiseach one day.”
Wicklow TD Harris was voted in as the country’s new leader in a packed Dail and on a day full of debate and drama.
At 37, the Fine Gael boss is Ireland’s youngest ever Taoiseach – sparking Minister Heather Humphreys to recall how she thought he was “work experience” when she first saw him in Leinster House.
Harris said he would be “a Taoiseach for all, a Taoiseach who will listen” and pledged to “move mountains” to solve the housing crisis, Ireland’s biggest social and economic issue.
Outgoing Varadkar told the Dail that Harris has the “empathy, energy and experience” for the role. Opposition leaders disagreed. Mary Lou McDonald described the takeover as “rearranging the deckchairs” by a “century old cosy club, with no objective but to stay in power”.
Migration
Richard Boyd Barrett said Harris was part of a Government that failed a generation forced into mass migration as they are unable to buy their own home.
But it was a day of celebration for the Wicklow TD, who made it a family affair with his parents, wife and kids looking on from the visitor’s gallery.
Alongside them was his brother Adam (29), the autism campaigner whose own challenges in childhood inspired his big brother’s political career.
Harris paid tribute to wife Caoimhe, and their daughter Saoirse ( five) and son Cillian (two).
“My children mean the absolute world to me” he said, as – right on cue – little Cillian shouted out “Daddy!” from the gallery.
The family theme continued with Humphreys, who proposed Harris for Taoiseach in a speech that had a touch of “Irish Mammy” pride about it.
Harris was a fresh-faced 24-year-old when he first became a TD in the same year as Humphreys.
She said: “I saw this young lad walking around the place and I said to myself, ‘He must be on a school tour or on work experience.’ So imagine my surprise a few minutes later when I saw him standing up in the Dail to nominate (then Taoiseach) Enda Kenny.”
“It took me a few weeks to make my maiden speech, and he did it on Day One. Anyone who heard him that day knew from the start he would go far.” ‘COSY CLUB’: Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou blasts move