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Ireland’s new taoiseach, Simon Harris, has promised a “new social contract” as he took up the job less than a year before the next general election.
“Time is short and there is lots to do,” Harris told the Irish parliament on Tuesday before receiving the seal of office from President Michael D Higgins.
The premier is taking over a booming economy but he faces urgent demands to resolve Ireland’s acute housing crisis and long health service waiting lists before a general election due by March 2025.
“Now is an opportune time to build a new social contract . . . To protect our hard-earned economic success. To use its benefits to deliver tangible outcomes to society,” he said.
“Today, I recommit to moving mountains to help build more homes,” Harris said. He has promised to “hit the ground running”, offer tax breaks for middle-income earners and help for small businesses and farmers.
Dubbed the “TikTok Taoiseach” for his social media savvy, the 37-year old is Ireland’s youngest prime minister. His vertiginous rise in Irish politics started in his teenage days when he campaigned for autism services for his brother.
His centre-right Fine Gael party governs in coalition with the centrist Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. He faces the challenge of refreshing his party’s jaded image as it seeks a historic fourth term in power after Leo Varadkar’s surprise announcement last month that he was resigning.
“The people expect us to do more,” Harris said. “We should demand of ourselves no less.”
Despite serving as health, higher education and, briefly, justice minister, he has never held the most senior cabinet roles and has little EU experience. He is set to travel to Brussels later this week, with European and local elections looming in June.
Mary Lou McDonald, leader of Ireland’s biggest party, the nationalist Sinn Féin, slammed his appointment, saying his tenure as health minister had proved you could “fail your way right to the very, very top” and said Ireland needed a general election now.
“Here we go again — pass the parcel with the keys to the taoiseach’s office one more time,” she said.
Ivana Bacik, leader of the opposition Labour party, criticised “lofty promises devoid of substance”.
But she raised a smile even from Harris himself when she said his party’s “A New Energy” slogan “sounds like a Star Wars tag line”.
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