Helen McEntee To Remain As Justice Minister, With Harris Set To Choose Between Two Others For Final Cabinet Post

Taoiseach-elect Simon Harris is set to choose between Hildergarde Naughton and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill for his final Cabinet post, while Helen McEntee is set to remain as Justice Minister.

Ms McEntee is set to remain in her post, despite rumours that she was to be moved out of the Justice Department and into the Department of Enterprise. 

However, one minister has said that while Mr Harris is "wary" of McEntee, severalFine Gael officials feel that moving MsEntee into a different department would give credibility to Sinn Féin's call of no confidence in the minister back in November, while further fuelling the far right.

Junior Minister Patrick O'Donovan had been vying for that final Cabinet post, however he is now out of the race, and is set to be promoted to a Senior Cabinet role.

Westmeath TD Peter Burke is set to take up a role of Department of Enterprise which was vacated by Simon Coveney last week. Burke is a trained accountant, and had previously sat on Public Accounts and Finance Oireachtas committees.

So far, no decision has been reached regarding Junior Ministers Ms Carroll MacNeill and Ms Naughton.  TDs Colm Burke, Emer Higgins, and Alan Dillon are set to be promoted to junior ministerial ranks. 

Junior Agricultural Minister Martin Heydon is to remain in her role, with colleagues saying that he has had "good wins", while adding that being a Kildare TD could still work against him in a reshuffle. 

Following a formal vote this afternoon, Simon Harris to to travel to the Áras to be formally appointed Taoiseach by President Michael D Higgins later today, with a ceremonial cabinet meeting taking place later this evening.