Politics

Fine Gael leader Simon Harris moves to name his inner kitchen cabinet

New Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach-in-waiting has begun to assemble small, close-knit team drawing largely from within existing Fine Gael family

Simon Harris is likely to call on existing talents within government departments as well as re-hiring people who have worked for him previously. Picture: Collins

With just over a week until Simon Harris is set to be elected taoiseach by the Dáil, the new Fine Gael leader is busy building a new team of political advisers and backroom experts whose job it will be not only to provide counsel but to steady the ship in the coalition’s last year in government.

Whereas his predecessor Leo Varadkar had a large team of policy advisers and communications experts around him, Harris is ...