In the two weeks since Simon Harris became Fine Gael leader, there has been intense speculation on who will feature in the incoming taoiseach’s Cabinet line-up.
Much of it has centred on the future of Minister for Justice Helen McEntee who has been considered vulnerable in Tuesday’s reshuffle in a way that other Fine Gael Cabinet colleagues — Heather Humphreys and Paschal Donohoe — have not.
The suggestion from some is that while she is likely to stay in Cabinet, Mr Harris could move her, perhaps to Simon Coveney’s old brief at the Department of Enterprise since he bowed out of consideration to remain on.
The questions surrounding Ms McEntee’s future have been fuelled in part by the renewed emphasis on Fine Gael as the ‘party of law and order’ under Mr Harris’s leadership.
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Since then party veterans including former minister for justice Charlie Flanagan and ex-minister of State Michael Ring have called for the scrapping of the Government’s planned hate speech legislation and criticised proposals to allow the extension of drinking hours in pubs and nightclubs — both areas Ms McEntee has been working on — as they argued for Fine Gael to return to core values.
This follows a tough six months for Ms McEntee at the Department of Justice amid concern over street crime in Dublin and the city rioting last November.
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She faced criticism last summer when she insisted Dublin was safe in the days following a high-profile attack on a tourist.
Sinn Féin tabled a motion of no confidence in Ms McEntee after the Dublin riots, though she was staunchly defended by colleagues and the Government countermotion was easily passed.
In the last fortnight, Ms McEntee has expressed a desire to stay at the Department of Justice, highlighting aspects of her record like bringing in a zero-tolerance approach to domestic and sexual violence and tougher sentences for certain crimes.
She told Fine Gael’s ardfheis at the weekend that “making sure that we have enough gardaí on our streets has been my number one priority”.
During a session entitled “Safer Streets Across Ireland” she also mentioned measures like bringing in body cameras for gardaí and the allocation of funding to provide 700 new prison spaces in the coming years.
Ms McEntee was praised by colleagues at the event.
Dublin Fingal TD Alan Farrell noted Garda numbers are up and referred to her efforts to encourage recruitment including increasing the age cap.
Louth TD Fergus O’Dowd said that Fine Gael must be very tough on crime and its causes including dealing with poverty and education deprivation.
He added that this has been “personified, I believe, in what you have done Helen as Minister and I thank you for all of that”.
The closest anyone came to overt criticism of Ms McEntee during the debate was a motion calling for giving the judiciary powers to implement minimum sentencing for serious crimes.
The delegate proposing it said: “Our new leader minister Harris, as Minister for Justice [he filled in during Ms McEntee’s maternity leave last year] began the process of introducing minimum sentences when he was serving in the Department of Justice but this legislation has not progressed far enough.”
Plans to allow judges to set minimum sentences in murder cases — perhaps 20 years — before the perpetrator is considered for parole were first announced by Ms McEntee two years ago.
She told delegates legislation would be published before the summer adding that it is a “complex area of law”.
During his ardfheis speech on Saturday, Mr Harris promised to fast-track the plans.
As he considers his reshuffle the new taoiseach will be weighing up the perceived difficulties in the area of justice — and the potential for a fresh face to represent Fine Gael’s renewed focus on law and order — with the negatives of moving Ms McEntee from the role.
While criticisms can perhaps be made of the pace of some measures she is pursuing it could seem harsh to remove her from the job for that reason given the complexity of the kind of legislation that goes through the department.
Mr Harris himself faced difficulty in progressing plans to allow gardaí to use controversial facial recognition technology with the Coalition partners in the Green Party successfully resisting his attempt to accelerate its introduction while he was Minister last year.
There is also the fact that this Government has less than a year to go in office at most.
No matter how capable or qualified Ms McEntee’s possible replacements are — junior Ministers Peter Burke and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill have been most frequently tipped — it is a short time for any new minister to read into a new brief and show delivery.
Ms McEntee can point to some genuine progress in areas like efforts to tackle domestic violence and the mood music on her being moved has faded somewhat in the last 48 hours.
On balance, Mr Harris may well decide to leave Ms McEntee where she is.
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