Simon Coveney: 'I didn't leave politics to retire — I'm as busy as ever'

Last year's election saw a significant level of attrition among politicians. Elaine Loughlin talks to the former tánaiste and long-serving Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney about the path ahead

Mon, 19 May, 2025 - 01:00

Elaine Loughlin

Life for Simon Coveney is as busy as ever as he travels from Cobh to Copenhagen and Abu Dhabi as part of a number of new ventures he has jumped into since leaving politics.

“My daughters would be the first to say ‘dad, we like it when you are busy’ because I am generally more energised when I am busy,” said the former tánaiste and long-serving Fine Gael TD.

“What I would say is I am more in control of my time now. Some of the things I am working on are projects I am driven by because there is a force for good behind them, other things I am doing on a commercial basis. I am trying to get a good mix there to make sure that I am staying energised about the work I do and the people I work with.”

In January, he was appointed a non-executive director of the Irish engineering and automation solutions company Reliance; last month, it was announced that he had joined EY Ireland’s geopolitical strategy team as a consultant, and just last week, he added another title to his CV, that of senior advisor at EMIR, a Dubai-based advisory and research firm.

“I didn’t leave politics to retire. I had a choice to make and I made it years ago, in truth; if and when I was to leave politics did I want to develop a second career? So the reason for leaving politics at the age of 52 was that I had time to do substantial other things.”

He has different reasons for taking up the various roles but one which he is keeping at least partly under wraps for now is his Caradem Democracy Initiative, which will not necessarily pay the bills but keeps him on the international political stage.

“In some ways, the most challenging project that I’m doing is I’m a founding director along with [former Labour leader] Eamon Gilmore and Catherine Heaney [of Edelman] in setting up an international advisory not-for-profit company focused on what we call ‘democratic resilience’.

“It’s essentially helping government and state institutions in parts of the world that are being challenged by conflict or corruption or an undermining of democracy, to help them build resilience.

"That could be coalition formation, it could be writing a constitution, it could be setting up regional parliaments, it could be community policing, it could be dealing with online threats to elections and to state infrastructure.”

Caradem Democracy Initiative has gathered a panel of expert advisers, including former politicians and those who have been leaders in other public bodies as well as private sector individuals, many of whom have been part of the project for nearly a year.

“You would know a lot of the names,” Mr Coveney offers, but says that more details will be provided when the initiative is formally launched later this year.

'Not about financial gain'

“It’s a project that’s not about financial gain for me, it’s what I would regard as a ‘mission for good’ project and I think the others are involved for the same reasons.”

Mr Coveney was drawn to the growing list of titles he now holds for different reasons — the EY position allows him to stay involved in energy, security, and tech, while he took up the Reliance board position as “the company is 100 years old and is a great Cork enterprise story, which I like”.

“In Ireland, I wanted to work with a number of different companies in different ways so I set up my own advisory service called Waterfront Advisory, which is effectively headquartered in Cobh. That allows me then to work in a business-like and professional way with big clients.”

The EMIR position sees him travelling to the Gulf region for about a week each month and he stresses that it was founded by an Irishman, which was a draw.

Overall, life has changed but has not slowed down, with which Mr Coveney is very content.