Daniel McConnell: Heather Humphreys is not a surprising choice to act as Justice Minister

Daniel McConnell looks back on the career of Heather Humphreys as she prepares to take over the duties of the Justice Miniser for the coming months

Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys will act as interim Justice Minister during Helen McEntee's maternity leave. File picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The decision to appoint Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys as interim Justice Minister to allow Helen McEntee take six months maternity leave is not surprising.

With Ms McEntee remaining a minister without portfolio within the Government for the duration of her leave, with the Constitutional limit of ministers set at 15, the duties were always going to be reassigned to an existing minister.

While replacing Ms McEntee with another woman during her leave was not the predominant consideration, it was not an insignificant factor either.

In keeping with the Government agreement, it was a Fine Gael matter to arrange the mechanism as to who would replace Ms McEntee.

Discussions between Ms McEntee and her leader, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, as well as separate chats with Ms Humphreys were ongoing for a number of weeks in advance of the announcement on Thursday.

It is understood that while there may have been a concern around the potential workload, Ms Humphreys felt a desire to “step up” and support Ms McEntee.

Ms Humphreys is viewed as a politician of great cunning. The 58-year-old Monaghan native has been at Cabinet for seven years and is seen as a “safe pair of hands”.

While replacing Helen McEntee with another woman during her leave was not the predominant consideration, it was not an insignificant factor either

She has grown in stature and influence after a rocky start when she was a surprise choice to fill the arts portfolio under Enda Kenny.

A successful round of commemorations during the 1916 centenary followed by a solid stint as minister for business and enterprise were also seen as significant factors in her selection.

Described by some as a shrewd “constituency-obsessed” politician, Ms Humphreys’ affable style has also allowed her to forge good working relationships with ministerial colleagues from other parties.

She was known to be close to Mr Kenny when he was taoiseach, and is described as being a very loyal minister to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar. 

While some have said she is an excellent Cabinet colleague, others have added that she plays for one team and one team only – Team Heather.

She was known to have been “palsy-walsy” with independent super junior Finian McGrath in the last government, as he described it, and has developed good relations with Michael McGrath, Catherine Martin and Roderic O’Gorman in this Government.

She made a deliberate point of developing good relationships with civil servants, particularly Martin Fraser, secretary-general to the Government.

She has managed to avoid any major landmines in Social Protection and skilfully navigated the €5 pension issue well in the budget without much fanfare.

However, given that cash was dished to a historic degree last October, tougher times certainly lie ahead.

Ms Humphreys will have to grapple with the unwinding of the pandemic unemployment payments, as well as making a call on the auto-enrolment on private pensions.

Coupled with that, she will now be in charge of matters relating to the security of the State as well as the politically sensitive issue of judicial appointments.

People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith expressed “alarm” that Ms Humphreys will have two very large portfolios to contend with, which could lead to “things falling between the cracks”.

“It is not the individual, but the portfolio that she has,” said Ms Smith. 

"She already looks after Social Protection, and now with Justice – which is another very large portfolio – I raised concerns about how can this be done and is it feasible. It strikes me that this would make neither job especially looked-after, in the context of two big portfolios.

Helen McEntee outlined a very ambitious plan for Justice in 2021, so I am concerned that major issues will be dealt with by one individual with two large departments. It is a huge amount of responsibility for one person.”

Government sources have said such concerns are valid but a number of mitigating factors must be considered.

The tenure will last six months, three of which will be during the summer recess, so the workload should be lighter. Additionally, much of the day-to-day work at the Department of Justice will be handled by junior ministers Hildegarde Naughten and James Browne.

And, since the spate of scandals which engulfed the department a number of years ago, the minister is now well insulated politically from potential scandals.

People before Profit TD Bríd Smith expressed 'alarm' that Ms Humphreys will have two very large portfolios to contend with. Picture:Gareth Chaney/Collins

Famed for her no-nonsense hard-working approach, in her spare time, Ms Humphreys is known to be a music lover. She plays the organ – or at least did in earlier years – and is a passionate gardener.

Born in May 1963, she is a Presbyterian but has described herself as a “proud republican”.

A former staff member in Ulster Bank, she was later the manager of Cootehill Credit Union. She was co-opted to Monaghan County Council in 2003 and was re-elected in 2004 and 2009 before her election to the Dáil 10 years ago.

She took the third of three Fine Gael seats but today stands as the sole party TD in the Cavan-Monaghan constituency.

She married her husband Eric Humphreys in 1996 and they have two daughters, Eve and Tara.

In 2015, she revealed that just as she was becoming a minister the year before, Tara was in a very serious car accident, which almost killed her.

“My daughter Tara had a very, very bad accident on the March 31, which was Mother’s Day,” she explained. 

“She was in a serious car crash, we nearly lost her. She was nine days in a coma and I suppose, at the end of the day, you have to think what’s important here and when you can get through that, you can get through most things”.