Speech by An Tánaiste Simon Harris Fine Gael Think-in 2025

Introduction 

Chairman, colleagues, I’m delighted to be here in Longford, Westmeath, in the town of Mullingar, in a proud constituency that has given us two Fine Gael TDs in the last election, Minister Peter Burke and the Chair of our Parliamentary Party, Micheal Carrigy.

It’s great to be here together for what is always an important political moment ahead of the new Dail term; a time where we have an opportunity to tease through and think through various policy priorities for the period ahead.

And, friends, we will begin this new Dail term at a moment when politics really must be at its most practical.

An Uncertain and Volatile World

All around us, the world has become more volatile, more complex, more divisive.

War and famine are devastating countries with an unimaginable and unbearable impact on civilian populations.

Trade tensions continue and international norms no longer seem that normal.

We in the Fine Gael Party must continue to do what we always do; navigate our way through this complex environment.

We will continue to stand up for and support Ukraine and work with international colleagues for a lasting, enduring peace. Aggression can never be rewarded. Territorial integrity must always be respected.

When it comes to Gaza, the people of this country are utterly appalled and angry at what they are seeing unfold. So am I. A genocide in Gaza, starving children, a famine; famine being something we inherently abhor here in this country.

We will continue to work domestically, at a European level and at the United Nations to find a way forward that sees an end to the genocide, a release of all hostages and a huge surge in humanitarian aid.

In fact, myself and the Taoiseach will attend the UN this month to work intensively on diplomatic issues in relation to this.

Keeping the Focus at Home

And although we live through a time where the news agenda is understandably and rightly dominated by world affairs, it is absolutely essential that we also keep focus on domestic issues here in Ireland, on the choices that we can make here at home to improve the lives of our people.

We must control what is within our control.

And since Fine Gael re-entered government in January, that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve been working hard to deliver.

We delivered a €275 billion investment plan to build more roads, more schools, better health care facilities and, crucially, to build more homes and the enabling infrastructure needed for our homes like water and energy.

We’ve taken practical decisions to assist with the supply of housing, like changing the law to extend planning permissions, exempting developments from planning, changing apartment standards, reforming rent pressure zones.

We’re working tirelessly to remove roadblocks, to fast-track delivery and to bring clarity and certainty.

When it comes to businesses, we’ve taken decisions to provide them with certainty with clear decisions on sick pay, on a roadmap for the living wage, on personal injury guidelines.

And we’ve set up a small business unit in the Department of Enterprise to never forget that we must always keep the focus on Irish small and medium enterprises, which continue to provide the bulk of employment in our country.

We’ve introduced new contracts and rosters in our health service that have ensured patients have more access to treatment, get better access to senior decision makers in our hospitals at any time of the day or night.

We’ve rolled out free HRT to over 170,000 women and we’ve expanded eligibility for free IVF for couples struggling to conceive.

We’ve stood by our farmers. We promised them we’d establish a cabinet committee on water quality and we’ve done just that.

And we have decided that the Common Agricultural Policy, being properly resourced and funded, will be a major priority for Ireland in the EU budget negotiations.

And one of the most important things I think we’ve done this year is establish a national education therapy service for the first time ever in the history of our country to ensure the child is at the centre of the service delivery model, and that children can get access to the supports that they need in schools in real time, not years down the line.

So today, let’s look forward. Let’s look at what’s next.

Never Taking Economic Stability for Granted

Today is Fine Gael’s chance to regroup. It’s our chance to double down on the mission that brought each of us into politics, delivery, delivering real results for the people we serve.

I’m very conscious that for many people here today, this is your first think-in as a member of the Parliamentary Party.

Because let’s not forget, we went into the last general election with only 17 sitting TDs seeking re-election. 23 new TDs were elected.

In the Seanad 13 senators out of 17 are new.

So I particularly welcome those new members of our Parliamentary Party here today.

Whilst this is your first think-in, it is my 15th. And in advance of today, I was thinking back to my first think-in, when we met in a room not dissimilar to this, but against a very different economic backdrop.

Massive unemployment, 14 or 15%. The cupboards were bare, the economy collapsing, and quite frankly, public trust in the ability of politicians to fix the mess, utterly broken.

Our international reputation was in shreds, mortgage arrears and home repossessions were at an all-time high. People were struggling to keep their heads above water.

And I say that to remind us that political choices, hard work, determination, leadership can make lives better.

Political decisions can solve issues that sometimes seem insurmountable. Working together, we can deliver for the Irish people, just like we did during that period, 2011 onwards.

We now live in a country where people rightly expect economic stability, economic growth, full employment and sound management of the public finances. But let that never be taken for granted.

I think far too often that is also glossed over. There isn’t enough space in political and media discourse to talk about the importance of always pursuing policies that will protect our economy and therefore keep our people and our communities and our country safe.

Budget 2026

So in a few short weeks, we will deliver Budget 2026 on the 7th of October.

And this is a budget in which each decision will have an impact on the lives of people across Ireland.

But collectively, the decisions we make and the choices we take will represent a political vision of the Ireland that we want to create.

So today, let me share some thoughts with you in relation to the framing of that budget.

I believe Fine Gael should, with government colleagues, deliver a budget that:

1. Builds resilience in our economy and works to protect every job.
2. Works to build homes and deliver key infrastructure across Ireland.
3. Delivers permanent, sustainable relief for working families in terms of their costs.
4. Supports carers, children, older people and the most vulnerable.

Now let me be clear. We’ll not be able to do everything in Budget 2026. But this budget should be seen as the first instalment of five.

The commitments that we have given during the election and in our programme for government must be delivered. But some of them will take a number of budgets to deliver.

But Budget 2026 must start outlining the direction of travel.

We should not forget what we heard and what we said during the election.

One of the things we heard was how many, many small businesses across our country are struggling when it comes to their cost base.

Any politician in the Leinster House bubble who doesn’t understand that isn’t listening to businesses on the ground.

The local cafe owner, the local restaurant owner, the local publican will tell you that their cost base is either unsustainable or extraordinarily challenging.

We need to take action to show them that we hear them and that we value their work and want to safeguard their continued existence in our communities.

These are the backbones of our towns and our villages across the country and they need our help.

Secondly, when it comes to the delivery of homes, we’ve already taken a number of big decisions, which I have outlined already.

And we’ve provided very significant capital funding that will help unblock more sites for housing and build more homes quickly.

The budget is another chance. Builders need predictability in policy, timelines and planning to make investment decisions. And I expect Budget 2026 to be able to provide further clarity and further support.

Thirdly, we must deliver permanent and structural changes for families, for working families with their cost of living.

We are moving away from an era of one-off cost of living measures.

But that is not the same thing as saying we do not intend to help families with the bills that they experience in their own lives.

In our election campaign and in the Programme for Government that we agreed with government colleagues, we set out very clearly an ambitious agenda in helping families in a range of areas.

One such area is the area of childcare. There are 21 commitments in the Programme for Government in relation to childcare, including issues around access, places, and reducing the cost.

In the coming weeks, I expect to see an Action Plan published that will outline how we intend to knit all of those commitments together.

And I believe Budget 2026 has to move forward in terms of advancing those commitments.

Getting childcare right is important. It’s important for families, it’s important for society, and it’s important for our economy.

When it comes to education, our track record on reducing costs for parents for children is clear. We committed to free schoolbooks. They’ve been delivered. We rolled out free hot school meals. That’s been delivered.

And as Minister for Higher Education, I implemented a policy to reduce college fees.

Costs should never be a barrier to accessing education. Our Programme for Government is clear on that. Our manifesto was clear on that. And Budget 2026 has to continue to make progress in these areas as well.

And when it comes to helping those most in need, I’m very proud that it was my predecessor as Fine Gael leader, Leo Varadkar, who established the Child Poverty Unit in the Department of the Taoiseach, a unit that I retained and Micheál Martin has retained also.

This is one that I believe deserves real, real focus. We must continue to address, we must address the scourge of poverty on children. And this budget needs to take clear, targeted measures to help those most in need.

It needs to take clear, targeted measures to help those children both in poverty or most at risk of poverty.

But I also believe Budget 2026 has to begin the process of delivering our commitments for carers. I’m proud of many of the decisions our party has taken in relation to carers.

We’ve worked hard with Family Carers Ireland, delivering increases across the board in payments and ensuring our carers have access to a pension for the very first time.

That meant 2,500 family carers benefited. We nearly doubled the income disregard for carers allowance from €332.50 to €625 for a single carer and from €665 to €1,250 for a carer who’s part of a couple.

We do this because they’re an essential part of our society and that the work they do is invaluable.

But we made a clear commitment in the general election that we would abolish the means test and this budget has to begin that work. We have to show a pathway forward and I want to see clear steps taken in Budget 2026 to begin that journey of abolishing the means test.

So this is the first budget of the new government, and it must show our intent, it must show our values  – protecting our economy, protecting jobs, building homes and infrastructure, delivering for working families and helping our carers, disabled people, older people and those most in need.

Let us do that work together and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on that later today.

Online Safety

One other area that I want us to work on together is the area of online safety.

Whether you’re a teenager who has accessed the phone for a first time or a politician or a public figure using social media as a platform, online media can be the wild west.

Our kids are being shaped by their world online. Often their worlds are consumed by it. This is not a good thing.

As a father I fear the day my children asks me can they have a phone or an iPad because I don’t want to lose my children to the online world, a world where misinformation can be circulated without recourse, where lies and mistruths are allowed to spread without fear of favour and where the responsibility seems to be yours and yours alone to report threats levelled at you.

Where vile imagery and content never seems to violate the policy of social media companies, this needs to stop.

Social media, online media, these are all good advents but online safety matters too and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and working with you and government colleagues to make sure we keep our children safe online and to make sure that tech companies live up to their obligations.

Ireland in Europe

Colleagues, Fine Gael is a proudly pro European party.

Next year our country will hold the presidency of the European Union. We are working hard to prepare for this and to deliver an effective Presidency that does our country proud.

Our Fine Gael team of Ministers, MEPs, TDs and Senators will work to bring the EU Presidency to every part of the country.

2026 will be an opportunity for Ireland – an opportunity, as we have always done in our presidencies, to lead and shape the EU policy agenda in the best interests of our citizens.

Tomorrow offers us an opportunity to discuss the role the party can play in ensuring Fine Gael and EPP values are at the heart of the presidency.

Presidential Election

Before I conclude I am conscious that we gather here less than seven weeks out from a presidential election.

In the coming days and weeks we will all be in our communities right across Ireland seeking support for a woman we and the country know well, Heather Humphreys.

Heather has spent her political career fighting for what she believes in, speaking up, taking positions.

She’s wise, she’s wily, she’s warm. Heather is politically experienced. She is ready to serve.

The presidency belongs not to any one party, but it belongs to the Irish people.

It is a role that speaks for our values, it speaks for our place in the world.

Heather Humphreys would be an outstanding President because we all know and always have known who she is and what she stands for.

I have often heard her speak about uniting people across this island.

Heather Humphreys will win over the hearts and minds of many, many people I believe in the coming weeks.

She understands perspectives, she will protect the dignity of the office, she will be a President for all, for communities big and small, for rural, for urban Ireland.

She will represent all of us from Inchicore to Inishmaan, from Bantry to Bushmills. So lets get to work and lest do everything we can to support Heather Humphreys.

She deserves our full support, our full backing and can I say how delighted and honoured I am that so many independent TDs and politicians have decided to support her as well and I thank them for that support in recognition of her excellent suitability for this high office.

Conclusion

So friends, let’s get down to work.

What politics needs now is less shouting, less bombast. It needs people to roll up the sleeves, to work for solutions, not to divide but to deliver.

Let’s do so with clarity, with unity and purpose. Let’s show the country that this Fine Gael party under my leadership is renewed, is ready and is relentless in its focus on delivery.

Go raibh míle maith agat.