Politics

Helen McEntee shares photograph of week-old son

Fine Gael TD says Michael Shane Hickey arrived more than two weeks early

Minister Helen McEntee with baby boy. Photograph: Instagram

Thu May 6 2021 - 12:26

Minister Helen McEntee says her baby boy arrived more than two weeks early, as she released a photograph of him on Instagram.

Last week the Fine Gael Meath East TD became the first serving Cabinet Minister to give birth while in office.

Ms McEntee and her husband Paul Hickey thanked all those who had wished them well on the birth of baby Michael Shane Hickey, who is a week old. The baby shares his middle name with Ms McEntee’s late father, Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee, who died in 2012.

Ms McEntee temporarily stepped aside April 27th as minister for justice to take maternity leave, but remains a member of Government, albeit serving as a Cabinet Minister without portfolio during the duration of her leave. Her son was born two days later weighing 7lbs 8oz, in the Rotunda Hospital.

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“He was determined not to give his mammy any time off arriving over two weeks early, but we’re home and he’s doing great so we coudn’t ask for more” Ms McEntee said on Instagram.

Heather Humphreys will serve as Minister for Social Protection, Rural and Community Development, as well as Minister for Justice during the period of Ms McEntee’s maternity leave, while Ministers of State Hildegarde Naughton and James Browne will be assigned responsibility for civil and criminal justice, and law reform and immigration respectively.

Ms McEntee previously said arrangements for her maternity leave are a “sticking plaster” until a more permanent solution is found.

Her maternity leave is being facilitated by a complicated arrangement necessitated due to caps on the number of ministers a government can have.

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