Overview
- Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris was named Minister for Finance within hours of Paschal Donohoe’s resignation for a World Bank post.
- Harris will hold the portfolio for exactly two years, deliver two budgets, and then see Finance rotate to Fianna Fáil as he becomes Taoiseach on 16 November 2027.
- RTÉ analysis cautions that combining Finance with Harris’s roles as Tánaiste and party leader risks overstretch and greater vulnerability to political pressure.
- The Government has lifted 2025 spending by €4.1bn above the plan set last December, relying on corporation tax receipts that officials describe as volatile and likely to diminish.
- The reshuffle also assigned Helen McEntee to Foreign Affairs and Defence and Hildegarde Naughton to Education and Youth, with a Dublin Central by-election to follow Donohoe’s departure and Eurogroup exit.