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LAST UPDATE | 27 Jun 2024
DARA CALLEARY HAS been announced as the new “super junior” Minister attending Cabinet meetings.
The Fianna Fáil TD will also retain his current role as Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
He previously served as Minister for Agriculture, but resigned in 2020 following the fallout from the infamous Oireachtas Golf Society dinner in Galway.
Meanwhile, Kildare TD James Lawless has been appointed as a Minister of State at the Department of Transport and Environment, taking over the role vacated by Jack Chambers after his appointment to Minister for Finance.
Lawless is chair of the Oireachtas Justice committee.
The promotion now opens up a further vacancy in a junior ministry, which will allow someone from the backbenches to move up the ladder.
Calleary said he was “honoured” to be rejoining Cabinet and thanked Tánaiste Micheál Martin for the opportunity.
“I look forward to working with colleagues on a range of issues, but particularly focussed on helping our enterprise community, our digital community and growing enterprises and business across the regions,” he said.
Lawless said it was a “huge honour to serve my country, serve the government and serve my party.”
“Transport is at the heart of the Kildare North commuter belt and all that I’ve worked towards as a public representative,” Lawless said.
“I look forward to building on the work done by Minister Jack Chambers and getting stuck into my brief.”
Taoiseach Simon Harris congratulated both men and said he looked forward to continuing working with them both.
Congratulations to Minister @daracalleary and Minister @lawlessj on their respective appointments today, from all of your colleagues at Fianna Fáil. pic.twitter.com/8Vn8ZIUTSG
— Fianna Fáil (@fiannafailparty) June 27, 2024
“Dara has worked hard as Minister of State and will bring this experience to Government meetings with a focus on trade promotion and digital transformation,” Harris said.
“James has an important portfolio with responsibility for road transport and postal policy.”
Tánaiste Micheál Martin also congratulated both men on their appointments, saying Calleary had been “a very effective Minister of State” in his role in the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment.
”James has a long-held interest in transport issues, and in particular developing public transport and road infrastructure. I wish him all the best in his new role.”
The Dáil yesterday voted to formally nominate Jack Chambers to take over the Finance portfolio from Michael McGrath, who himself was nominated as the country’s next European Commissioner.
Speaking after formal approval, Fianna Fáil leader and Tánaiste Micheál Martin said Chambers is “always completely on top of his brief” and “a constructive and focused contributor to deliberations”.
In addition to becoming Minister for Finance, Chambers was last week announced as the new deputy leader of Fianna Fáil, a role that had been unfilled for a number of years.
Meanwhile, work on the Finance brief began straight away for Chambers, who yesterday met with Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe.
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Who are the ones taking cocaine???
@Sean Money: The anti government cheerleaders.
@Vincent Alexander: sinn fein at it? Not a good mix with their machine guns.
@Sean Money: its a front, Kelly and Labour on it years, just look at “bat-cheeks”
@Terry Molloy: he is using it as a deflector against his habit
@Sean Money: I very much doubt they take any drug, they would have to be awake to do that. Many could do with some smelling salts to wake them up and start delivering for the citizens of Ireland
@Sean Money: Not a SF supporter but was it not Charles J Haughey who supplied the IRA with the weaponry to start the troubles in Northern Ireland?
FF have the same amount of blood on their hands as SF
@Sean Money: I’ll Hazzard a guess sleepy Jesus eamo wouldn’t even know what it is.
I’m sure he’s delighted to be given the opportunity to crash the economy like his predecessors.
Best of luck!
The Super Junior Minister role. Wow wee. Can you be promoted to the Super Duper role if you do a good job
@Old Times: Yes, but nobody has ever qualified for it!
@Old Times: nobody knows as none of them ever did a good job.
@Colette Byrne: doing a good job is not a prerequisite for political promotion.
Snouts in the trough again!
@Brian Hunt: There will be great savings with a SF government. All TDs salaries will be reduced to the average industrial worker’s wage.
@Brian Hunt: Lol
@Vincent Alexander: would be nearly as bad as 7 or 8 pay rises during a global pandemic
@Vincent Alexander: there’s no saving for the taxpayer, they take the full salary and give a bit of it to the politburo.
Another slot on the gravy train and course in how to waffle being paid extortionate wages with no accountability,never changes.
@Paddy C: wages aren’t extortionate
@Paddy C: accountability comes around every 5 years
@Tony Lyons: lump sum and pension either way makes no odds
@Pat Hazzard: Please explain.
@Pat Hazzard: no they’re pittens for the actual real work that’s done I suppose
Super junior? We are a great country all together, the government are doing what they like and we are just taking it up the you know what, as usual.
How Can Harris scoot to Europe to vote for Von Der Leyen a couple of weeks after recognition of Palestine
Enjoy the gravy train nice salary and whatever expenses,doesn’t matter never need to answer for it anyway. Its like winning the lotto plus only better,pension aswel and sweet fa getting done for the salary involved,waffle,waffle show the face get the money hit the road.
I used to work for him… Absolute ballbag. Patronising all day long and not very smart.
@Daragh McCauley: your self description is enlightening
@Daragh McCauley: that does sound good. What nasty stuff did he do?.He’s a.bad one this fella
@Daragh McCauley: that’s explains the majority of those numskulls in the dail as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike
How will Darragh Calleary manage to change into his super junior minister costume now that there are no phone boxes any more.
@Padraig O’Brien: in the golf club locker rooms
Cmon back into the fold Dara, the public have forgotten the past. Yer a great man.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: Was he the mobile phone man or the expenses man as well.
@Jp Cleary: covid golf knees up in contravention of government policy.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: Almost as if government members were not feeling threatened by that virus even though it was supposedly so bad that they had all us plebs locked down. Fun times
I remember he got booted out of the cabinet during covid. What was it he said on radio the one morning when warning people not to go to any gatherings etc. oh yeah ‘covid loves to party’. Then he went to the golf dinner that night.
And by repeatedly voting the same crowd in we are giving them free reign to keep screwing us.
Unbelievable, failed the public repeatedly and awarded for it.
Incompetence must be a requested of Irish politics.
the whole lot of them are so detached from reality it’s frightening
Lawless a very apt surname…
@Malachy Cox: so is Cox…
How many levels of minister are there in total then???
So much for global warming eh summer was terrible.the greatest con job of all time in Ireland
Comments closed on nearly everything free speech get your point across for the people what a useless piece of shxxxt this media has become
Ahh the little piglet is back
Super man to the rescue
Hunsontherun
Its amazing how the irish Catholic Church is sooo silent with regard to Enoch Burke proceedings, they should be backing him up 100% instead of hiding under the carpets, after all he is a Christian man with morals !!!
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