IT was expected at time of going to print on Wednesday that Limerick would be well represented in the incoming government, with former Minister for Further and Higher Education Patrick O’Donovan speculated to secure another ministerial position.
In a stop-start day for the 34th Dáil on Wednesday (January 22), which saw the sittings suspended three times in a row over Dáil speaking rights, the chamber was given the task of selecting a Taoiseach and ministers to serve for the next term.
It was expected, at the time of going to print, that Limerick Fine Gael TD Patrick O’Donovan would be given the Communication, Arts, and Culture portfolio in the new government.
The Communication, Arts, and Culture job would be an amalgamation of portfolios, with the communications portion coming from former Minister Eamon Ryan’s portfolio of Minister for the Environment, Climate, and Communications, while Deputy O’Donovan would take over from outgoing Minister Catherine Martin who held the position of Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media.
Green Party Minister Catherine Martin lost her Dáil seat in the last election, while party leader Eamon Ryan did not contest the election, choosing instead to retire from politics.
Newcastle West native Minister O’Donovan previously held the position of Minister for Further and Higher Education, being elevated to the role in April 2024, when Fine Gael party leader Simon Harris was appointed as Taoiseach.
The Newcastle West man, an industrial chemist by trade before returning to education to become a primary school teacher, was first elected to the former Limerick County Council in 2004 at the age of 27. He topped polls with 1,485 first-preference votes.
In 2011 he was first elected to the Dáil where he served under former Fine Gael party leader Enda Kenny.
He has three children with his wife Eileen, whom he married in 2014.
The 47-year-old, previous to serving as OPW Minister, served as Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for Public Procurement, Open Government, and eGovernment from June 2017 until June 2020. He was also Minister of State for Tourism and Sport between 2016 and 2017.
It has also been speculated that Limerick Ministers of State Niall Collins (FF) and Kieran O’Donnell (FG) would retain their junior ministerial posts, though it was unclear at the time of going to print what portfolios they would be given.
Deputy Collins held the post of Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science with responsibility for Skills and Further Education in the last government.
A former lecturer at the Limerick Institute of Technology, Deputy Collins trained as an accountant having worked with Ernst and Young before running for office.
Deputy O’Donnell was the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works in the last Dáil.
Previously serving as a senator from 2016 to 2020, he was elected to Dáil Éireann first in 2007, and then again in 2011, he was sent back to the Dáil on the 10th count back in November.
