Minister for Enterprise and Employment Simon Coveney has said he will be running again for Fine Gael in the next general election.
Mr Coveney also said he would be meeting this week with the new party leader Simon Harris but the decision of the make-up of the new Cabinet would be a matter for him as the incoming taoiseach.
Mr Coveney said Mr Harris needed the space to do this. He said Mr Harris had a good relationship with those in Cabinet at present as well those who would like to be Ministers.
Mr Coveney said he would not be “adding to speculation or lobbying publicly”.
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There had been speculation about the future of Mr Coveney in the wake of several Fine Gael politicians announcing that they would not run again for the Dáil. However on Sunday after he said he would be a candidate.
Mr Coveney was one of several Fine Gael Ministers who attended the party’s selection convention for the Midlands-North West constituency for the European Parliament which was held in Athlone on Sunday.
Asked if after 11 years in Government he would consider opting out of the Cabinet to allow the new taoiseach to bring in new blood, Mr Coveney said: “I will talk to Simon about that when we meet later on this week, just to understand his thinking. We had a good conversation [on Saturday]. I think Simon’s focus really is to try to use the talent that is in the party to the maximum extent possible. And there is a lot of talent in Fine Gael.”
“But really this is [Harris’] call. I will respect that. And I think that other people will too. There are big issues at play here. We need to get back to running the country. Simon has to prepare for being Taoiseach in a Coalition Government where we are working with two other parties. And he has to talk to all of his own colleagues about trying to make what I suspect will be difficult choices for an incoming party leader who then becomes Taoiseach very, very quickly after that.”
Mr Coveney said that being taoiseach was “quite a lonely place in terms of the scale of decisions that you have to make – particularly trying to get the balance right when you have to choose a team to represent Fine Gael in Cabinet – which is only part of the Cabinet.”
“And that means letting some people down, and giving other people an opportunity. And he has a couple of weeks now to think through those choices. And I respect his view.”
Mr Coveney said that sometimes in politics, dramatic change takes place over a very short space of time.
“I think this is going to be a really good change for Fine Gael actually. It is an opportunity for renewal – for new talent to emerge in the party. ”
The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee told a press conference that it was the prerogative of any taoiseach of the day to appoint the members of his Cabinet or to make any changes.
“I have a lot of work still to do in Justice, obviously. But that is very much a decision for the Taoiseach”, she said.
The Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said: “I fully agree with all my colleagues.”
The Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys also said that it would be matter for the Taoiseach to appoint ministers and he would do that in due course.
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