Election 2020: Eoghan Murphy (Fine Gael)

Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy (37) has emerged personally unscathed from an election that saw his party pay a heavy price for chronic problems in housing supply and homelessness. Despite being the touchstone for criticism of the Government, Murphy – benefitting from a slight hardening of the traditional Fine Gael vote in the final days of the election campaign – took the third seat in Dublin Bay South.

A brother of actor Killian Scott and playwright Colin Murphy, Eoghan Murphy attended St Michael’s College in Dublin 4 and UCD, where he studied English and philosophy, and King’s College London. He worked for a UN body in Switzerland and the Department of Foreign Affairs before winning a seat on Dublin City Council in 2009. A Dáil seat followed in 2011, a junior ministry in 2016 and a full ministry in 2017. As Minister for Housing since then, he has faced two motions of no confidence, both defeated.