- By Eimear Flanagan
- BBC News NI
Image supply, Getty Images/NurPhoto
Simon Harris, now 37, organised his first political assembly when he was a 16-year-old schoolboy
Simon Harris is ready to substitute Leo Varadkar, not solely as taoiseach but in addition as the youngest individual ever to lead the Republic of Ireland.
At 37, he’s a 12 months youthful than Mr Varadkar was when he took the identical job in 2017.
The County Wicklow native organised his first political assembly at simply 16 years of age.
He was additionally in such a hurry to begin his profession in politics that he dropped out of school with out ending his diploma.
“I know, in many ways, my career has been a bit odd,” Mr Harris instructed Hot Press magazine in 2022.
“I used to be a county councillor at 22. I used to be a TD (member of the Irish Parliament) at 24.
“I used to be a junior minister at 27. I used to be the well being minister at 29.
“Life came at me a lot faster than I expected it to.”
Who is Simon Harris?
Image supply, Getty Images/NurPhoto
Simon Harris has served as a minister in the Irish cupboard for the previous eight years
Mr Harris was born in 1986 and grew up in the coastal city of Greystones, County Wicklow.
The eldest of three youngsters, he’s the son of a taxi driver and a particular wants assistant.
His youthful brother Adam is autistic – a reality which Mr Harris mentioned kickstarted his personal involvement in politics when he was 16.
“I was really frustrated – as that moody, opinionated teenager – with the lack of information around autism,” he instructed Hotpress.
“I saw the stress and strain my parents went through, and called a public meeting in my hometown.”
The teenager invited autistic folks and their households to a gathering in his native parish corridor.
About 60 folks attended the occasion, which resulted in the institution of a new autism help and foyer group.
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As a schoolboy, Mr Harris attended St David’s Holy Faith Secondary School in Greystones earlier than starting a diploma in journalism and French at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).
However, the future minister for additional and better training dropped out of school throughout the penultimate 12 months of his four-year diploma course.
He deferred his research to work as a parliamentary assistant to Fine Gael Senator Frances Fitzgerald, however very quickly he entered elected politics himself.
In 2009 he grew to become a councillor in Wicklow, attracting the highest particular person vote of any candidate in the county.
When Fine Gael swept to energy in 2011 to lead a new coalition authorities, Mr Harris received a seat for the get together in Wicklow.
Aged 24, he was “the baby of the House” as the youngest member of the 31st Dáil (Irish parliament).
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As the youngest member of the Irish Parliament, Simon Harris met the late Queen Elizabeth in Dublin in 2011
His obtained his first cupboard position in 2016, taking over the prestigious however troublesome position of well being minister.
The following summer time he married his long-term girlfriend, youngsters’s cardiac nurse Caoimhe Wade.
His brother Adam was greatest man at the ceremony.
Mr Harris is now father to two youngsters.
Mr Harris married aged 30 and has since had two youngsters
In 2018, he intervened in the case of a nine-year-old schoolboy who was born in Dublin however was going through deportation to China.
Eric Zhi Ying Xue had by no means been exterior Ireland, however was not entitled to Irish citizenship due to a 2004 regulation change.
“This is his home. This is his country. I really hope common sense can prevail.”
He appealed to the Department of Justice and, after a wider marketing campaign led by the boy’s faculty, Eric was granted depart to keep.
Covid-19 gaffe
Mr Harris had served as well being minister for greater than three and a half years when he confronted his largest problem – the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Image supply, Getty Images/NurPhoto
As well being minister, Simon Harris led Ireland’s preliminary response to the coronovirus emergency
But six weeks into the nationwide emergency, Mr Harris made a stunning gaffe concerning the title of the illness.
Speaking about the prospect of a future vaccine, he mentioned: “Remember this is coronavirus Covid-19, that means there have been 18 other coronaviruses and I don’t think they have successfully found a vaccine for any.”
Widely ridiculed on social media for his lack of information, Mr Harris apologised for what he described as an “awful boo-boo”.
Two months later he was changed as well being minister when a new coalition authorities was fashioned.
Mr Harris was moved to a newly-created division, turning into minister for additional and better training, analysis, innovation and science.
He nonetheless holds that job and nonetheless lives in Wicklow together with his younger household.
“For me, fatherhood changed my whole life. The hours I was happy to spend at my desk can sometimes be spent worrying about missed moments and milestones with the children,” he wrote.
However, commentators have famous Mr Harris has made no secret of his political ambitions.
His title started to flow into as a frontrunner as quickly because it was clear the job of taoiseach was up for grabs.
