Fine Gael TD for the Cork-North West constituency, Michael Creed, has retained his role as the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
This came after the Dail chose to elect Leo Varadkar as the next Taoiseach earlier today; the Fine Gael TD was elected on a count of 57 votes for to 50 votes against, with 45 deputies choosing to abstain.
Following on from Varadkar’s election as Ireland’s youngest-ever Taoiseach, a slight cabinet reshuffle was expected this evening.
Creed was first elected as a TD in 1989, but lost his seat in 2002. He was re-elected in 2007 and he took over his current ministerial position in May of last year.
Former roles
The Macroom native has also held several positions on the Fine Gael front bench with the most recent one being Agriculture, Fisheries and Food between 2007 and 2010.
He also held positions in: Health; Youth and Sport; Education; and Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht during the 1990s.
Minister Creed is a former member of Cork County Council; his father Donal also served as a TD as well as a Minister of State.
Fianna Fail TD, Aindrias Moynihan, topped the poll the last time around; he registered a total of 8,924 votes.
Party leadership election
Following on from former Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s announcement that he intended to retire, Minister Creed refrained from publicly backing either Leo Varadkar or Simon Coveney in the party’s leadership election race.
When pushed for an answer, he underlined that the vote was a secret ballot and that he intended to keep his decision private.
Speaking at the announcement of the Teagasc/FBD Student of the Year awards at the beginning of this month, Minister Creed said he had only been in the job “a wet week” when he attended the event in 2016.
He made it clear that he hoped to be in attendance at the same event in 2018. Minister Creed also made similar sentiments known at the launch of Teagasc’s ‘People in Dairy Project’, following the secret ballot on Friday, June 2.