Simon Coveney

Simon Coveney (born 16 June 1972) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment since December 2022 and Deputy leader of Fine Gael since 2017.

Coveney was born in Cork in 1972 to Hugh Coveney and Pauline Coveney.

He has 5 brothers and 1 sister.

His father was a chartered quantity surveyor and later a TD, and also a member of one of the famous merchant families in the city.

His uncle was Archbishop Patrick Coveney.

Simon was educated locally in Cork, before later attending Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare.

He was expelled from the college in Transition Year but ultimately was invited back to complete his full six years there.

He repeated his Leaving Certificate in Bruce College in Cork.

Coveney subsequently attended University College Cork and Gurteen Agricultural College, before completing a BSc in Agriculture and Land Management from Royal Agricultural College, Gloucestershire.

In 1997/8, he led the “Sail Chernobyl Project” which involved sailing a boat 30,000 miles around the world and raising €650,000 for charity.

He spent several years working as an agriculture adviser and farm manager.

He has served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork South-Central constituency since 1998.

He was elected to Dáil Éireann in a by-election in 1998, following the death of his father Hugh Coveney.

Coveney was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael candidate for Cork South-Central in a by-election, caused by the death of his father in 1998.

In spite of being a strong supporter of party leader John Bruton, he remained on the backbenches for a number of years.

In 2001, discipline in the parliamentary party broke down and Coveney came out against Bruton in a leadership heave.

His loss of support was a surprise and encouraged others to vote against Bruton.

The subsequent leadership contest was won by Michael Noonan and a new front bench was put in place.

After an initial period on the backbenches, Coveney was promoted to the Front Bench by Michael Noonan, as deputy chief whip.

Coveney was re-elected at the 2002 general election, in what turned out to be a disaster for Fine Gael.

The party lost twenty-three seats and some of its most important party figures.

Noonan was replaced as party leader by Enda Kenny, who promoted Coveney to the position of Spokesperson on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, in his new front bench.

He also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South constituency from 2004 to 2007.

Coveney was elected to the European Parliament for the South constituency at the 2004 European Parliament election.

During his three years as an MEP, Coveney held the position of human rights co-ordinator for the largest political group in the European Parliament, the European People's Party, and twice authored the Parliament's Annual Report on Human Rights in the world.

He spearheaded the Stop the Traffic campaign at the European Parliament.

He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Delegation for Relations with the United States and a substitute on the Human Rights Subcommittee, Fisheries Committee, Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee and the Delegation for Relations with Iran.

Coveney returned to Ireland to contest the 2007 general election.

He was successful in being returned to the Dáil, as a result, he stepped down as a Member of the European Parliament.

He was replaced in the European Parliament by Colm Burke.

Fine Gael won back many of the seats that the party had lost five years earlier; however, they still fell short of forming a coalition government with the Labour Party.

Coveney returned to the party's front bench as Spokesperson on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

After the formation of the coalition government in March 2011, Coveney was appointed Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Following a cabinet reshuffle in July 2014, which saw him also take over the position of Minister for Defence.

On the formation of a Fine Gael minority government in May 2016, he was appointed Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government.

He previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2022 and Minister for Defence from 2014 to 2016 and again from 2020 to 2022.

He previously served as Tánaiste from 2017 to 2020, Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government from 2016 to 2017 and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine from 2011 to 2016.

In June 2017, after Leo Varadkar succeeded Enda Kenny as Taoiseach, Coveney was appointed as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Deputy leader of Fine Gael.

He was appointed Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) in November 2017, following the resignation of Frances Fitzgerald.

As part of the new government formed following the 2020 general election, Coveney was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence in the new cabinet.