Following the resignation of
Leo Varadkar in March 2024, Harris was the only candidate in the
2024 Fine Gael leadership election. After being elected party leader, he was appointed Taoiseach on 9 April 2024. Aged 37, he became the youngest Taoiseach in the history of the state.[6]
Early life
Harris was born in
Greystones,
County Wicklow, in 1986. He is the eldest of three children born to Bart and Mary Harris.[7][8] His sister was born on his third birthday, and his brother is eight years younger than him.[9] A grand-uncle of his was a Fine Gael councillor in
Dún Laoghaire.[10]
Harris began working as an assistant to his future cabinet colleague
Frances Fitzgerald in 2008, when she was a member of
Seanad Éireann.[13] At the
2009 local elections, Harris was elected to
Wicklow County Council,[17] with the highest percentage vote of any
County Councillor in Ireland,[13] and to Greystones
Town Council.[3] As a councillor, he served as chairperson of the County Wicklow Joint Policing Committee and Chairperson of the
HSE Regional Health Forum.[18] He was a member of Wicklow County Council's Housing Strategic Policy Committee[18] and Wicklow Vocational Educational Committee.[18]
Harris was elected to
Dáil Éireann in 2011, taking the third seat in the
Wicklow constituency.[17] As the youngest deputy in the
31st Dáil, he was selected by Fine Gael to nominate
Enda Kenny for
Taoiseach, making his maiden speech.[19] Harris served on the Dáil
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, and Reform.[20][21] He was also a member of the
Oireachtas cross-party group on Mental Health, and introduced the Mental Health (Anti-Discrimination) Bill 2013, in June 2013.[22]
During a period of intense flooding throughout the country during the winter of 2015 and 2016, Harris was forced to deny accusations that the government had left €13m in the budget for flood relief works in 2015 unspent, while he had also secured funding for flood defences in his own constituency.[25]
Minister for Health
On 6 May 2016, Harris was appointed to the cabinet as
Minister for Health.[26][27] In his first year in the job, Harris faced the possibility of 30,000 health workers and 40,000 nurses going on strike.[28] The planned strikes were later called off.[29]
In 2016, Harris contributed to the "A Healthy Weight for Ireland – Obesity Policy and Action Plan 2016–2025", a policy outlining "the Government's desire to assist its people to achieve better health, and in particular to reduce the levels of overweight and obesity", in which Harris claims that "the approach taken in developing this policy was based on the Government framework for improved health and wellbeing of Ireland".[30]
In 2017, Harris was accused of "practising hypocrisy" over his stance on the Sisters of Charity's ownership of the
National Maternity Hospital.[31] The controversy saw the resignations of
Dr. Peter Boylan and Prof. Chris Fitzpatrick from the board of the hospital.[32][33] The Religious Sisters of Charity later relinquished ownership of three hospitals: St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, St. Vincent's Private, and St. Michael's. Harris was re-appointed when
Leo Varadkar succeeded Kenny as Taoiseach in June 2017.[34]
On 26 April 2018, the HSE confirmed that 206 women developed cervical cancer after having a screening test which was subsequently deemed to be potentially inaccurate on lookback, once a woman presented with a confirmed diagnosis of Cervical Cancer and given the known limitations of screening using smear technology.[38] In
the resulting scandal, Harris was criticised for his handling of the matter on multiple occasions.[39][40][41][42][43]
On 20 February 2019, Harris survived a motion of no-confidence over his handling of the rising costs (over €2 billion) of the new
National Children's Hospital.[44][45] The motion was voted down by 58 votes to 53 with 37 abstentions.[46][47][48]
Harris was the Fine Gael Director of Elections for councillor James Geoghegan's campaign in the
2021 Dublin Bay South by-election.[53] Following Leo Varadkar's appointment as Taoiseach on 17 December 2022, he was re-appointed to the same position, as well as
Minister for Justice on a temporary basis during the maternity leave of
Helen McEntee.[54]
Fine Gael leadership
Leo Varadkar resigned as
leader of Fine Gael on 20 March 2024, triggering a
leadership election. Varadkar indicated that he would also resign as Taoiseach upon the election of the new Fine Gael leader. Nominations opened at 10 a.m. on 21 March 2024. By that afternoon, more than half of the Fine Gael parliamentary party had announced their support for Harris to be the next leader and all other cabinet ministers had ruled themselves out of the contest. Harris confirmed his intention to run for Fine Gael leader on the evening of 21 March 2024 on the Six One News.[55] When the deadline for nominations was reached on 24 March 2024, Harris was the only candidate, and he was confirmed as leader at the party's meeting in Athlone the same day.[56][57] Both other government parties have indicated that they wish the government to run its full term notwithstanding the change of leadership.[58][59] Varadkar tendered his resignation as Taoiseach to the President on 8 April.[60] The Dáil reconvened after the Easter recess on 9 April, when Harris was forwarded for the nomination of Taoiseach.[61]
In 2017, Harris married Caoimhe Wade, a
cardiac nurse. They married at St Patrick's Church in
Kilquade.[65] They have a daughter and a son.[9] Harris lives with
Crohn's disease,[66] but has said it has little impact on his day-to-day life.[67]
Harris is the eldest of three siblings.[68] His brother is autistic and runs the autism services charity AsIAm, which Harris co-founded.[69]
Harris is noted for his social media presence, especially on
TikTok, having been nicknamed the "TikTok Taoiseach".[70][71] He used
Instagram for live streams while Minister of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was cited by the Irish Examiner as a rare occasion in which a government minister took questions from the general public.[72][73]
References
^"Simon Harris". Oireachtas Members Database.
Archived from the original on 4 May 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2011.