Do we like Simon Harris?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A decent record on LGBTQ+ and women's rights and no court trouble, held back by one contested stance on migration and housing.
Harris was born in 1986 and has barely been out of the political spotlight since. He was Health Minister by 2019, became Taoiseach in 2024, and now sits as Tánaiste and Finance Minister. That makes him one of the most recognisable faces in Irish politics, and one of the busiest targets.
On the harm test, the LGBTQ+ side is clean. In March 2025 he said he was "alarmed" by Hungary's anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and urged Budapest to stop targeting the community. In 2024 he refused calls to scrap Ireland's hate speech bill, saying the law needed updating and amending. On Gaza, he accused Israel's government of "genocidal activity" in 2025; how you read that depends on where you sit on the war.
The asterisk is migration. He has said Ireland's numbers are too high and told the Dáil roughly 3,000 more homes are needed for every 10,000 arrivals. Opposition TDs accused him of dog-whistling and homelessness groups disputed the housing link. His office says avoiding difficult truths hands space to extremists, and he called the dog-whistling claim bizarre. It's a contested position, not a campaign against anyone's rights.
On the planet he's mixed rather than a champion. He rejected Sinn Féin's call to roll carbon tax back to 2023 rates, and said Ireland shouldn't rely on imported fossil fuels. Budget 2027, though, extended fuel levy cuts, and he defended that as more help than any other EU government gave.
The good stuff is real. As Health Minister he introduced the abortion legislation after the 2018 referendum. He kept going through months of online threats against him and his family, which he says brought him close to walking away. Those threats are the abuse aimed at him, and it's not on him.
Take-home: a mainstream centre-right pollie with a good record on LGBTQ+ and women's rights, a murky patch on migration rhetoric, and a budget that pleased nobody much. He's on the right side of the big stuff.