Dara Calleary named as junior minister attending Cabinet

Dara Calleary has been announced as the new super junior minister attending Cabinet meetings.

He will retain the portfolio of Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with special responsibility for Trade Promotion and Digital Transformation.

Kildare North TD James Lawless will take over the position of Minister of State at the Department of Transport with special responsibility for International and Road Transport and Logistics.

He also takes on special responsibility for Postal Policy at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications with special responsibility for Postal Policy.

The positions became vacant due to the elevation of Jack Chambers to the Minister for Finance role vacated by Michael McGrath.

Ministers signed off on the nominations at an incorporeal Cabinet meeting this afternoon.

Mr Calleary was briefly Minister for Agriculture in 2020 for just over one month but he resigned after the Golfgate controversy.

Before that, he was chief whip for a few weeks.

He has been a TD for Mayo since 2007.

In August 2022, he became a junior minister following the resignation of Robert Troy.

Mr Lawless was elected in 2016 for Kildare North.

He chairs the Oireachtas Committee on Justice.

Minister for Finance Jack Chambers said he “hit the ground running” on his first full day in the role.

He said he met Department of Finance officials today, will meet Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Pascal Donohoe tomorrow, and the Summer Economic Statement needs to be prepared next week, which will provide the “broad fiscal parameters for 2025”.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Six One, Mr Chambers said that no budget decisions have yet been taken by the Government or the coalition leaders.

He said his role as minister is to make sure he brings a “responsible and sensible approach to fiscal policy”.

Any decisions will be in the medium to long-term interest, Mr Chambers said, and will aim to “strengthen living standards, improve public services, and give workers and families a break in the context of taxation”.

Putting money aside for the Future Ireland and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature funds are of “paramount importance,” he added.

The minister said that housing delivery has to be prioritised and he will be working with Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien to make “further progress” this year and next.

The budget will include targeted “ongoing support” for families, Mr Chambers said, balanced against tax and spending.

He added that he is “well capable” of saying no to protect Ireland’s long-term economic future and to ensure that decisions made are sustainable.