Simon Harris has confirmed that he is “ready to step up, ready to serve”
After Leo Varadkar announced on Wednesday that he was stepping down as party leader immediately and would resign as Taoiseach, Simon Harris threw his hat into the ring for the leadership role.
Since it’s looking more and more likely that Mr Harris will get the gig, you might want to know a little bit more about him.
So we decided to look into the life and career of the potential next leader of Fine Gael and the country.
His younger years
Simon grew up in the seaside town of Greystones in county Wicklow.
Even from a young age, he made it clear that he wanted to be Taoiseach even when he was attending St. David’s secondary school where he became head boy.
He graduated in 2004 and headed to DIT to study journalism but decided to defer his final year in order to become a TD in 2011 – but not just any TD the youngest one in Irish history at 22 years of age.
His maiden speech in the Dáil was to nominate Enda Kenny as Taoiseach.
He served as a junior minister in the Department of Finance from 2014 before being propelled to the role of Minister for Health in the Fine Gael-led minority government that was formed in 2016.
Love and family
Simon’s wife and longtime love Caoimhe Wade is a cardiac nurse.
The couple said “I do” back in July of 2017 at St. Patrick’s Church, Kilquade in County Wicklow, followed by a lavish reception at Tinakilly House.
Simon and Caoimhe welcomed their first child, daughter Saoirse, in January 2019.
The couple then welcomed a son, Cillian, in September 2021.
The Fine Gael party member has often gushed about how proud he is to be their father, he said being a dad is “the most important job I have, and ever will have”.
Simon has two younger siblings, Gemma and Adam, whom he is very close with. Gemma was a bridesmaid for his wife Caoimhe in their wedding, while Adam served as Simon’s best man.
It’s clear that family is very important to the TD as when his brother Adam was diagnosed with autism her believed there to be a lack of information out there for people.
So, he called a local meeting, encouraging any parents out there, whose children had been diagnosed to attend.
TikTok TD to TikTok Taoiseach?
Simon is potentially on the way to becoming the youngest Taoiseach in our nation’s history and he shows it by being down with the kids…kind of.
The father of two was one of the first members of the government to join TikTok, though at first he did spell it ‘TicTok’.
His bio reads: “Government Minister. Wicklow TD. Optimist.” and he often uses the account to speak directly to his followers or just give a look into his day-to-day life.
He must be doing something right though as he boasts a rather impressive 92,000 followers and over 1.8million likes.
If his plans to be in government don’t work out, he could always switch things up and become an influencer right?
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