Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) Martin Heydon has said that he believes the structural changes within the government this weekend will be “minimal”.
A Cabinet reshuffle is set to take place on Saturday, December 17, as the current Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party coalition reaches the halfway mark. However, it is not yet known what positions will be taken up by various ministers.
Speaking to Agriland at an event in Birr, Co. Offaly yesterday (December 15), the minister said he does not foresee too many significant changes within his department.
“How much change there will be, that’s a decision for the leaders, but I suspect the change will be more conservative and minimal enough, I don’t think there’ll be a massive change in positions.
“I think Tánaiste Leo Varadkar addressing the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meeting last night (December 14) very much alluded to the changes being pretty minimal,” he said.
Minister Heydon also said that he would prefer to remain in his current position if possible, as he has a number of projects that he would like to continue working on.
“I’ve loved my time in the department and I really hope it will continue. I’m a farmer by trade from south Kildare so it’s a dream job for me after a number of years as a TD to get the position of minister of state,” he told Agriland.
“I believe I was able to bring something to the table being in that position as an active farmer.
“My preference would be to stay where I am and continue the work that I’ve started, particularly the work in the area of farm safety, we’ve put a lot of things in place and changed a lot of systems there that I hope can really bring about a cultural change.”
On the possibility that Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney could replace Minister Charlie McConalogue at the DAFM, Minister Heydon said that would result in further change.
“If changes like that happen it will lead to a lot of knock-on changes because we in the DAFM are presently a departmnet that has representatives from each of the three coalition partners.
“So, if a senior minister was to change, then ministers of state would change as well and it would lead to a lot of adjustments.
“We need to find out what position the outgoing Taoiseach will look to take when he becomes Tánaiste and that will then create a vacancy,” he finished.
Some changes within the government are certain to go ahead, including Taoiseach Michael Martin’s move into the position of Tánaiste, while Leo Varadkar will take up the role of Taoiseach.
As well as this, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohue and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath are set to swap portfolios.