In his speech after winning the nomination vote in the Dáil, Simon Harris said that “now is an opportune moment to build a new social contract: one which renews our promise as a republic, to create equality of opportunity, to support those who need the state the most, to protect our hard-earned economic success, to use its benefits to deliver tangible outcomes to society.”

“Housing remains the greatest societal and economic challenge of our generation. Today I re-commit to moving mountains to help build more homes and drive more home ownership,” he said.

Speaking after the vote, Simon Harris said he intends to lead the government in a spirit of collaboration.

“I commit to doing everything that I can to honour the trust that you have placed in me today,” he said.

He thanked his party, partners in government and the independents who supported his nomination.

“This is very much a partnership government, and I intend to lead it in the spirit of unity, collaboration and mutual respect, he said.

Harris also paid tribute to his predecessor, Leo Varadkar.

The Dáil has confirmed Simon Harris’ nomination as Ireland’s new taoiseach, by a vote of 88 in favour and 69 opposed.

Next, he will be formally appointed by Ireland’s president.

Rory Carroll

Opposition parties are throwing (metaphorical) vinegar onto the anointment of Simon Harris as Ireland’s new taoiseach, saying he is a product of a centre-right coalition government that has presided over a housing crisis and fraying public services and is scared of the electorate.

“For the third time you rearrange the cabinet deck chairs, for the third time in four years, you pat each other on the back and tell the people what a great job you’re doing,” said Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald. “The narrative we hear today from government is a fairy tale so outrageous that Hans Christian Andersen himself would be proud of it.”

Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit noted that a third of legislators from Harris’s Fine Gael party are jumping ship and will not contest the election, which is due by March. “Because they know they have failed hundreds of thousands of people in this country on the most basic things.”

Rory Carroll

While Britain was pinballing from Brexit to Boris Johnson’s melodramas and Liz Truss’s would-be fiscal revolution Ireland, it turns out, was being prudent – too prudent.

“The majority of officials, advisory bodies and academic will always recommend caution, playing it safe, conservative with a small ‘c’. It’s not always the best advice,” Leo Varadkar, told the Dáil in his last speech as taoiseach.

Varadkar reckons his centre-right administration was too cautious after the Celtic Tiger bust and wishes it had splurged on infrastructure, notably housing – which could be a tacit nod to his successor, Simon Harris, to let rip before the election.

“Certainly, had we known the economy would recover so quickly after the crash, that it would not stagnate due to Brexit and it would bounce back so strongly after Covid, many of the investment decisions we made would have been made a year or two or three sooner,” said Varadkar.

“Policies that are now starting to show results, would have done so much earlier has we been a little more confident.”

‘Always in a hurry’: the rapid rise of Simon Harris, Ireland’s ‘TikTok taoiseach’

Rory Carroll

Ireland’s Dáil is expected today to confirm Simon Harris, 37, as successor to Leo Varadkar, who stunned the country last month when he announced his resignation as prime minister and leader of Fine Gael.

The higher education minister blitzed potential rivals to be coronated as the party’s new leader. Fine Gael’s coalition partners, Fianna Fáil and the Greens, back him to become taoiseach.

It will be the culmination of a precocious rise for a polished communicator who has rewritten the political rulebook in Ireland but is barely known in Belfast, London or Brussels.

The new taoiseach will face daunting challenges. A housing crisis and fraying public services dim the centre-right coalition’s hopes of winning an election due by next March. Farmers are chafing at environmental rules while climate activists lament missed targets. Post-Brexit relations with London are tetchy and Northern Ireland’s government is fragile. About a third of Fine Gael’s Dáil deputies are stepping down rather than face voters.

Yet Harris has reputedly yearned for this opportunity since he was a teenager. “He’s acutely and almost obsessionally ambitious,” said Shane Ross, a former Fine Gael and independent politician who served in cabinet with Harris and knew him as a newly elected legislator in 2011. “He was always in a hurry, even at that time. Very early on he declared his leadership ambitions.”

Read the full story here.

Good morning and welcome back to the Europe blog.

Today we will be looking at the latest in Ireland, where Simon Harris is expected today to be confirmed as the new taoiseach.