Simon Harris - a man in a hurry to the top

Simon Harris, 37, is a year younger than Leo Varadkar was when he took the same job in 2017. Harris organised his first political meeting at just 16 years of age. He was a county councillor at 22, a TD (member of the Irish Parliament) at 24. Harris dropped out of college without finishing his degree.

Mr Harris was born in 1986 and grew up in the coastal town of Greystones, County Wicklow. He is the son of a taxi driver and a special needs assistant. His younger brother Adam is autistic - a fact which Mr Harris said kickstarted his own involvement in politics when he was 16. Mr Harris dropped out of college during the penultimate year of his four-year degree course.

He deferred his studies to work as a parliamentary assistant to Fine Gael Senator Frances Fitzgerald. In 2009 he became a councillor in Wicklow, attracting the highest individual vote of any candidate in the county. Aged 24, he was the youngest member of the 31st Dáil (Irish parliament) He got his first cabinet role in 2016, taking on the prestigious but difficult role of health minister. The following summer he married his long-term girlfriend, children’s cardiac nurse Caoimhe Wade.

Covid-19 was named by the World Health Organization to reflect the year the disease was discovered, having been first identified in China in late 2019. Mr Harris apologised for what he described as an “awful boo-boo”. Mr Harris was moved to a newly-created department, becoming minister for further and higher education, research, innovation and science. Two months later he was replaced as health minister when a new coalition government was formed.

He still holds that job and still lives in Wicklow with his young family.