Transformation: Delivering value through change
Minister for Justice: Helen McEntee TD justice report
also made McEntee the fourth female Minister for Justice in the history of the State, following Máire Geoghegan-Quinn of Fianna Fáil and Nora Owen and Frances Fitzgerald of Fine Gael. Since the appointment, McEntee has had to deal with the challenges of Covid-19 has thrown up like all ministers. In McEntee’s case, this has mainly concerned the enforcement powers given to Gardaí around Covid regulations and the penalties associated with their breachings.
A familar face in the halls of Leinster House since 2010 and a TD since 2013. Helen McEntee’s appointment as Minister for Justice is her first major ministerial portfolio in her seven-year parliamentary career. McEntee has been a fixture within Leinster House since she began work as the personal assistant of her father, Shane McEntee, in 2010. The elder McEntee was at the time serving Fine Gael TD for Meath East and upon Fine Gael’s 2011 election win was named Minister of State for Food, Horticulture and Food Safety. She was first elected as a TD in 2013. McEntee was returned in the Meath East constituency in the 2020 General Election, as the only Fine Gael TD in the three-seat constituency. Darren O’Rourke of Sinn Féin topped the poll with 24.4 per cent of first preference votes and was elected on the second count, displacing incumbent Regina Doherty. Despite the dip in her party’s popularity in the constituency, McEntee actually increased her first preference 34
vote share from 2016, claiming 18.5 per cent, an increase on her 2016 showing of 18.3 per cent, with Doherty bearing the brunt of the constituency’s turn against Fine Gael, collecting just 10 per cent of first preference votes. Following the elimination of the Doherty, McEntee was comfortably elected on the former’s transfers on the seventh count, with fellow incumbent and now partner-ingovernment Thomas Byrne of Fianna Fáil also deemed elected on the same count. Once agreement had been reached between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party to form a tri-party coalition government, McEntee was appointed Minister for Justice by new Taoiseach Micheál Martin, making her one of four female ministers in the 32nd Government of Ireland. The appointment
Other moves made in her fledgling tenure so far include steps towards the modernisation and reform of the Irish family law court system. The Minister was given approval by the Cabinet in September for the drafting of a Family Court Bill that will see the establishment of a District Family Court, a Circuit Family Court and a Family High Court as divisions within existing court structures. The move would also see the creation of principal judge positions within each of these new courts. The Minister said: “The development of sensible, comprehensive and sensitive family law procedures, particularly for vulnerable families, will be central to the new system.” One of the more notable legislative changes on McEntee’s agenda is the Dying with Dignity Bill, the bill sponsored by People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny that would legalise assisted dying in Ireland. McEntee told a Dáil debate that assisted dying is a complex issue with a myriad of ethical, moral medical, criminal justice and constitutional issues attached to it that would require further scrutiny, with the Government proposing that a committee be set up to examine the issue over the next 12 months. For McEntee and her government, that 12 months will be crucial for other reasons, as they seek to overcome a Covid- and confusion-scarred start to begin to implement their legislative programme. With a record justice budget of €3 billion at disposal, McEntee’s focus will be on the recruitment of extra Gardaí and Garda
