Simon Harris and Eoghan Murphy under threat in reshuffle

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has put his ministers on notice of his intention to carry out a reshuffle this summer, in the wake of the local and European elections.

Simon Harris and Eoghan Murphy under threat in reshuffle

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has put his ministers on notice of his intention to carry out a reshuffle this summer, in the wake of the local and European elections.

Among those ministers who are under threat of being sacked or moved from their current jobs are Health Minister Simon Harris, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan and super junior minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor.

Health Minister Simon Harris
Health Minister Simon Harris

Mr Varadkar has made it known of his desire to freshen up the Cabinet ranks for the fourth time since taking office and will aim to do so “in June or July”.

Speaking to political correspondents in recent days, Mr Varadkar said he would seek to follow the example of his predecessor Enda Kenny who performed a similar reshuffle in 2014.

“I’ve always said that would be the logical time to reshuffle the Cabinet, to reshuffle your team is after the local and European elections. That was done on the last occasion by Enda Kenny as Taoiseach. I’d be minded to do the same,” he said.

There’ll be a chance to reshuffle the team then, perhaps in June or July. That would give them a chance over the summer to read into new briefs if they get them. But we need to get their first,” he said in reference to the current uncertainty surrounding Brexit.

He refused to be drawn on the fate of various ministers saying it “would not be fair” to speculate.

Mr Flanagan, as one of the senior members of Cabinet, has been on more than one occasion been linked with demotion and several senior Government sources have indicated he is vulnerable.

Mr Harris was left as health minister by Mr Varadkar in 2017 following an appeal from Tánaiste Simon Coveney, who Mr Harris had backed in the Fine Gael leadership contest. He has had a rocky relationship with Mr Varadkar and depending on his handling of the pending winter hospital crisis could be facing the axe.

Mr Murphy has endured a torrid time in the Department of Housing and his relationship with Mr Varadkar is said to have soured somewhat in recent months. The rookie minister may be shuffled to another department rather than being dropped altogether.

Ms Mitchell O’Connor has signalled a willingness to sacrifice ministerial office in order to contest the MEP seat to be vacated by Brian Hayes, who is standing down. However, there is a belief that she would be demoted by Mr Varadkar in a reshuffle.

Mr Varadkar also made clear that the proposed referendum on divorce may be delayed to make room for the referendum to remove mention in the Constitution relating to a woman’s place is in the home.

“We were going to have the referendum on women in the home. That was to be held against the presidential elections. We decided not to go ahead with that; we didn’t have decent cross-party consensus on what to do.

The joint Oireachtas committee has now come back to us with proposed wording. If that wording is acceptable to the Attorney General, we may substitute that for the referendum on divorce instead,” the Taoiseach said.

He said the Government is determined to go ahead with the referendum to extend the right to vote to Irish citizens outside of Ireland in presidential elections.

Mr Varadkar also said he and other EU leaders are concerned about the potential for Russian interference in the European elections.

“That is something as EU leaders we are quite concerned with,” he said.

“European elections tend to be low turnout elections, people often use them as an opportunity to register a protest and they are very vulnerable to interference and external actors. Bear in mind the EU Parliament is a very powerful institution. If we had a parliament full of nationalists, populists and extremists it could bring a lot of the work we do in Europe to a halt, so it is a serious issue and one we need to be across.”

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