Three Cork TDs named as junior ministers but Colm Burke demoted

Just six of the 23 junior ministers are women, despite Micheál Martin previously insisting  he would address gender imbalance at Cabinet in his junior ministerial appointments

Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Tanaiste Simon Harris with newly appointed Ministers of State at a photocall 

Cork TDs Michael Moynihan, Christopher O'Sullivan and Jerry Buttimer have been elevated to junior ministerial ranks with Colm Burke demoted.

Micheál Martin and Simon Harris presented their picks for the junior ministers to Cabinet on Wednesday, with Michael Moynihan appointed to a role in the Department of Education with responsibility for special education. 

He is a former chair of the Oireachtas Disability Committee. 

Mr Buttimer will be appointed to the Departments of Transport and Rural and Community Development and Mr O'Sullivan will be Minister for Heritage and Biodiversity.

Fine Gael's Jerry Buttimer celebrates his Dáil election in late 2024. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Mr Burke will be demoted having served at the Department of Health.

On the Fine Gael side, Alan Dillon will move to the Department of Enterprise, Colm Brophy will take up the role being created to handle migration, Kieran O'Donnell will take on a specific remit of older people and John Cummins will be the junior housing minister.

Meanwhile, Neale Richmond will move to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Emer Higgins will move to the Department of Public Expenditure. 

First-time TD Emer Currie will become the assistant government whip.

On the Fianna Fáil side, Thomas Byrne becomes Minister of State for European Affairs, Charlie McConalogue will become Minister of State for Sport and Postal Policy and Jennifer Murnane O'Connor will become Minister of State for Public Health and Drugs Strategy.

Donegal TD Mr McConalogue was the only minister to be dropped from Cabinet last week.

Robert Troy, who resigned as a junior minister at the Department of Enterprise in August 2022 after failing to declare all his property dealings on the Dail register of members’ interests, has returned to the junior benches.

The Westmeath TD said at the time these were “genuine errors” and not an attempt “to conceal anything”. He will be reinstated as Minister of State for Credit Unions and Financial Services, 

Niall Collins will take up the junior justice portfolio, Niamh Smyth becomes Minister of State for Trade Promotion, AI and Digital Transformation and Timmy Dooley becomes Minister of State for Fisheries and the Marine.

Just six of the 23 junior ministers are women, despite Taoiseach Micheál Martin previously insisting that he would address the gender imbalance at Cabinet in his junior ministerial appointments.

Mr Martin said it would also be addressed in his Dáil committee and Seanad appointments.

The National Women's Council said that the junior minister announcement was "disappointing" and that it was "a failed opportunity to address the gender gap in our Government following the decrease of the number of women in the Cabinet".

Fianna Fáil has appointed nine junior ministers, while Fine Gael has appointed seven, with both parties already having appointed Mary Butler and Hildegarde Naughton respectively. 

Two of the other junior ministries have been given to independents Sean Canney and Noel Grealish, while the remaining three will go to Kevin Boxer Moran, who will resume oversight of the OPW, Marian Harkin who will oversee Higher Education and Michael Healy Rae who will be appointed to the Department of Agriculture.