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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Minister Sean Fleming
Laois Offaly Minister of State Sean Fleming looks set to remain a Minister but in a different Department.
It’s understood he is to take up a role in the Department of Foreign Affairs as Minister of State with responsibility for International Development, Cooperation and the Diaspora.
The job job will see the Fianna Fáil TD working along side his party leader and outgoing Taoiseach Micheál Martin who is the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tánaiste.
Some political commentary suggested his Ministerial post was in danger due to the change Finance Minister.
Concern arose that might lose his position when Fine Gael Finance Minister Paschal Donohue was replaced by Fianna Fail TD Michael McGrath. It’s understood Fianna Fail and Fine Gael agreed to each have a Minister at the Department of Finance, so the junior Minister also needed to change as a result.
There was some relief locally when news filtered back that Minister Fleming was to retain a Ministry where he will be able to make a case for Laois and Offaly at the highest levels.
A source close to the Minister expressed relief that he would be remaining on in a Ministerial role.
“It’s a relief that he got the call to go up there mid morning,” the source said.
“It is great to have it. It is great that he is still a Minister of State,” they added.
Minister Fleming was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for Financial Services, Credit Unions and Insurance in July 2020 .
He was appointed in a reshuffle after Darragh Calleary resigned as Minister for Agriculture following the Clifden golfgate Covid-19 controversy.
Mr Chambers' role at the Department of Finance will be taken by Sean Fleming. The Laois man is a trained accountant who served as the party's financial director and is a former chair of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee. Mr Calleary quit the Cabinet not long after being appointed to the role following the sacking of Seán Fleming's fellow Laois Offaly TD Barry Cowen.
Minister of State Fleming is not the first Laois Offaly representative to hold a ministerial position in Foreign Affairs. Sitting Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan served as the senior Minister in Iveagh House from 2014 to 2017.
Minster Fleming has been a TD since 1997. He previously served as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee from 2016 to 2020.
His Laois Offaly Green Party colleague Senator Pippa Hackett had already been reappointed Minister for Land Use and BioDiversity at the Department of Agriculture. She sits at cabinet as a so-called 'super junior' minister.
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