Simon Harris has pledged to invigorate Ireland’s ruling coalition after being elected the country’s youngest taoiseach.
The Dáil voted 88 to 69 on Tuesday to anoint Harris, 37, as successor to Leo Varadkar, who unexpectedly announced his resignation last month.
“I commit to doing everything that I can to honour the trust that you have placed in me today,” Harris, from the centre-right Fine Gael, told the chamber. “I accept this new role in a spirit of humility, ready for the challenge, and full of energy and determination about what can be achieved. As taoiseach I want to bring new ideas, a new energy, and a new empathy to public life.”
Harris went to the official residence of President Michael D Higgins to receive the seal of office before returning to Leinster House to appoint ministers in a minor cabinet reshuffle.
It marked a low-key end of the Varadkar era and the start of an unofficial countdown to a general election that must be held by March 2025 – a tight timetable for Harris to deliver on big promises such as fixing a housing crisis.
“Now is an opportune time to build a new social contract – one which renews our promise as a republic,” he told the Dail. “To create equality of opportunity. To support those who need the state the most. To protect our hard-earned economic success. To use its benefits to deliver tangible outcomes to society.”
Harris, from a working-class family in Greystones, County Wicklow, dropped out of college to focus on political activism and later built support among Fine Gael grassroots while hopscotching through cabinet positions.
He paid tribute to Varadkar, 47, Ireland’s first gay and mixed-race taoiseach, saying: “The history books will record the incredible service he did for our country dealing with some of the biggest challenges of our time, most notably Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. History will also record that he was a trailblazer as we broke free from some of the worst prejudices of the past, showing Ireland at its best to the world.”
Harris thanked Fine Gael’s coalition partners, Fianna Fáil and the Green party, and independent deputies who supported his nomination. He will reshuffle Fine Gael ministers but the rest of the government is expected to continue unchanged.
Opposition parties repeated calls for a general election, saying the public wanted a change of government.
“Another Fine Gael taoiseach is the last thing the people need,” said Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin. “For the third time you rearrange the cabinet deck chairs. For the third time in four years, you pat each other on the back and tell the people what a great job you’re doing,” she said. “The narrative we hear today from government is a fairytale so egregious that Hans Christian Andersen himself would be proud of it.”
Ivana Bacik, the Labour leader, compared Harris’s “new energy” slogan to a Star Wars tagline and said he lacked a mandate from the people. “From what we have heard so far, his elevation today will not deliver the change that we need.”