Politics

Revealed: What business can expect from Taoiseach Simon Harris

The new leader of Fine Gael leader’s attitude to business policy has been forged in the future-looking department of higher education, but his first challenge will be to address rising business costs

Harris’ rhetoric on enterprise will be quickly put to the test over the next year, as the cost of doing business becomes a central political issue

When Simon Harris was nominating Enda Kenny as Taoiseach in 2011, the 24-year-old first time TD used his maiden speech in the Dáil to highlight the importance of enterprise and the economy to his party.

Still in the throes of the economic crash, Harris highlighted the “blight” of unemployment and said the country needed a taoiseach that would “restore our economy”.

Making his first speech as the new leader of Fine Gael and taoiseach-in-waiting last ...