By Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday he would step down as Ireland’s prime minister and the leader of the governing Fine Gael party, in a surprise move, citing “personal and political” reasons.
Varadkar said he had asked for a new leader of the party to be elected ahead of Fine Gael’s annual conference on April 6, following which parliament would vote on that person succeeding him as prime minister after the Easter break.
Nobody has yet declared their intention to become the new leader. Here are details of the main potential contenders:
SIMON HARRIS
The bookmakers’ favourite to succeed Varadkar, 37-year-old Higher Education Minister Simon Harris saw his profile rise significantly when he was the country’s health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Harris, who also served as a junior minister in the finance department from 2014 to 2016, would become the country’s youngest prime minister if he is elected, surpassing Varadkar, who was 38 when he was first appointed in 2017.
Harris was elected a local councillor in his native county of Wicklow in 2009 and became a member of parliament two years later at the age of 24.
SIMON COVENEY
Coveney, who lost out to Varadkar in the 2017 Fine Gael leadership election, made his name as foreign affairs minister over the following five years when Ireland was at the centre of Britain’s prolonged negotiations to leave the European Union.
The 51-year-old former member of the European parliament has served as enterprise minister since 2022 and has also held the housing and agriculture briefs. He was deputy prime minister during Varadkar’s first three-year term as premier.
His late father, Hugh, was also a minister and member of parliament, while his brother, Patrick, is the chief executive of UK-based listed food service group SSP.
PASCHAL DONOHOE
Donohoe has served in the dual role of government minister and chair of the group of euro zone finance ministers since 2020. He was re-elected to a second three-year term as Eurogroup President in January 2023.
The 49-year-old Dubliner has held one or other of Ireland’s two budgetary roles for the last eight years, starting as public spending minister in 2016 before becoming finance minister a year later and returning to the expenditure brief alone in 2022.
Known for his prudent approach to the public finances, the politics and economics graduate spent 10 years working for consumer products maker Procter & Gamble in both Britain and Ireland before his election to the Irish parliament in 2011.
HELEN MCENTEE
Justice Minister McEntee would become Ireland’s first female prime minister if she succeeds Varadkar and the first woman to lead either Fine Gael or coalition partners Fianna Fail. Like fellow 37-year-old Harris, she would also be the youngest to be appointed to the role.
Ireland’s European Affairs Minister from 2017 to 2020 at the height of the Brexit talks, McEntee became a senior minister for the first time in 2020. She faced down calls to quit as justice minister following the outbreak of an unprecedented night of rioting in Dublin last November.
One of just 22 women to be appointed to cabinet since parliament first sat 105 years ago, McEntee became the first ever Irish cabinet minister to take maternity leave in 2021.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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