Jack Chambers, at 33, becomes the youngest Minister for Finance in more than a century, following his nomination to the role in the Dáil, as Michael McGrath moves to Brussels as Ireland’s nominee for commissioner.
In a roll call on Wednesday afternoon, the Dáil voted by 86 to 70 to accept his nomination, with applause and handshakes afterwards.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said Mr Chambers will be the youngest Minister for Finance since Éamon de Valera nominated Michael Collins to the post in 1919.
“His experience is already well beyond that of many who have held the post in the past.”
Taoiseach Simon Harris congratulated Mr Chambers as they prepared the “final budget” of this Government.
He said that although there had been significant change recently, “our Government has never been rooted in personalities but rather is rooted in the policies and programme for government and that common anchor helped us deliver stable government”.
He paid tribute to “formidable” outgoing commissioner Mairead McGuinness and praised Mr McGrath who “worked tirelessly to improve the lives of our citizens through careful management of our public finances”.
He said “budgets are never easy but even in the trickiest situation you found pathways forward, working closely with Minister [Paschal] Donohoe without a bad word ever being uttered”.
“But anyone who mistook your politeness for lack of steeliness certainly found out quickly how wrong they were.”
Mr Martin said Mr McGrath had a “fine record for four years as minister” and “on top of two decades as a serious and effective member of this House”. He is highly qualified to be a commissioner and had “demonstrated his capacity for focused and effective work on vital economic issues”.
He said of Mr Chambers: “Always completely on top of his brief, he is a constructive and focused contributor to deliberations.
“He is by nature not someone who looks for problems to exploit or to find opportunities to shout and denounce others.”
Mr Martin added that “in every role as a public representative and minister he has distinguished himself as a committed and tireless servant of the Irish people”.
He has been a TD for eight years and minister for four. “Drawing on his academic background in law, politics and medicine, he has been an excellent colleague, always available to give an informed and constructive opinion.”
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said Mr McGrath brought a “calm authority” during the financial crisis and that “history will be kind”.
He said that in transport, with Mr Chambers, “we have had our differences but actually that makes him really qualified for what’s to come because we were able to overcome differences and still get on.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said her first message to Government is that nobody could support Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as president of the EU Commission.
She hit out at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael as “parties of the insider class, the political establishment, a political cartel”.
Labour’s Ged Nash also warned that “this House and the Irish people will not stand by the Irish Government and you as commissioner supporting the reappointment of Ursula von der Leyen as president”.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said she was glad not to be the only one patronised because of their age and Mr Chambers’s age is not an issue. “We need more young people in politics.”
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