New Taoiseach ‘unlikely’ to sanction extra Ministers of State amid cost concerns

Fine Gael Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is unlikely to move to create any new Ministers of State amid concerns in Government about the cost to the taxpayer. There has been speculation in recent weeks that extra posts would be created, with new Ministers of State potentially going to assist the Minister for Children and Integration Roderic O’Gorman to deal with the humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine.

A senior source said on Monday that it is not likely that Mr Varadkar will do this. Instead Minister O’Gorman has requested extra staff in his department for 2023. Mr O’Gorman also said that all government departments would need to work together to deal with the challenges posed by the crisis. His comments come after a report led by former European Commission secretary general Catherine Day warned that “most of the ‘heavy lifting’ is being done” by the Department of Children.

The report said this was despite its lack of experience in housing policy and practice, and despite an inadequate level of resources to deal with the challenges.

[ Analysis - Cabinet reshuffle: Varadkar vote underlined strength of Government majority ]

In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr O’Gorman said he had put in a request for extra staff to cope with the challenges posed by the crisis in finding accommodation for more than 60,000 refugees who have fled Russia’s war on Ukraine.

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“It is a busy department in normal times. We are also responding to very significant crisis. We have grown as a department in terms of the numbers of staff. We are going to need to grow further. I have a clear request in, in terms of additional staff going into the first quarter of next year, to allow us meet all these additional challenges.

“We work closely with other departments through the Cabinet committee and co-operation has improved since it was establishment, and we are all held to account by the Taoiseach in terms of delivering, but in terms of the State’s ability to meet additional challenges going into next year it is going to require all government departments working together and delivering on the streams they are working on. All of government is going to have to deliver the ability to manage this ongoing challenge. It is not going to met by one government department.”

The new line-up of Ministers of State will be approved at a meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday. A source said it was “too early to say” whether there would be a significant reshuffling of the pack.

Much of the speculation has focused on the role of Minister of State for European Affairs, a role held by Fianna Fáil’s Thomas Byrne until last week. The ministry will move from Fianna Fáil to Fine Gael. There was speculation last week that Dublin Rathdown TD Neale Richmond was being tipped for the role. However there is also speculation that Dún Laoghaire TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is in the running. Political sources said there is a question mark around the position of Minister of State in the Department of Health Frank Feighan.

Another source said that it is unlikely that extra responsibilities will be added to any particular junior ministry, and that the descriptions of the roles will largely remain the same.

There is also an outstanding question around which party will take on responsibility for sports. It is understood that Fianna Fáil wants to retain the responsibility for sports, which previously rested with Jack Chambers, who now moves from his previous role of Government chief whip to a “super junior” role in the Department of Transport. No decision has yet been made on this.