Support for Bruton meant Flanagan had to bide his time

In all likelihood, Charlie Flanagan would have been seated around the Cabinet table since March 2011 had he not backed Richard Bruton during the ill-fated leadership heave of 2010.

At the time, he had a strong Fine Gael pedigree and a frontbench portfolio. When the coup started, he initially bit his tongue. But after remaining silent for three days, he proclaimed his support for Bruton with the ultimately misguided assertion that there had been a “decisive shift in the situation”.

The Laois-Offaly deputy was fortunate to retain a portfolio with the subsequent purge. But his high-profile justice brief was handed to Alan Shatter and he instead got to mark the junior minister at the Department of Children.

When Fine Gael entered government, loyalty was still a trait rated by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and, with a limited number of ministries to offer, Flanagan had to be content with a backbench role.

By that stage, he had taken over from Tom Hayes as chairman of the enlarged parliamentary party.

He could not be accused of brooding on the 2010 loss. He has supported the Taoiseach, and particularly Mr Shatter, throughout the recent crisis.

He is outspoken and is one of the most active politicians on the Twitter social media platform.

A solicitor with a practice in Portlaoise, he was first elected to the Dáil in 1987, but the family name has been linked to the Oireachtas since 1943.

His father was Oliver J Flanagan, once a minister for defence but more famously considered one of the most vocal politicians advocating Catholic teachings during the 1960s and 1970s.

Flanagan Sr was the first to utter the phrase that has echoed through the cultural changes in Irish society when he told Gay Byrne that sex did not exist in Ireland before television.

However, the new minister has said he felt his father’s reputation has been unfairly pigeonholed in the media. He said his father was a strong opponent of corruption and had stood up to Éamon de Valera and others who held power at the time. His father was a devout Catholic, but he said this was not the only way to define him.

However, as a politician Charlie Flanagan is not his father and was credited with a robust and passionate speech as Fine Gael’s justice spokesman welcoming the passing of the Civil Partnership Bill in the Dáil. During the speech, he raised concern because the bill did not go far enough, as it did not deal with the rights of children raised by same sex parents.

“Secular is not a dirty word, as some have tried to assert,” he said at the time. “Secular, democratic measures have given women equal rights and blown the lid off decades of sexual abuse by religious congregations by conducting important investigations.”

He lost his seat in the 2002 general election but was returned comfortably in the last two ballots. He is married to Mary McCormack and they have two daughters.