Richard Bruton becomes Fine Gael PP Chairman

FORMER Government Minister Richard Bruton has been unanimously elected as Chairperson of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party.

Deputy Bruton, who served in previous Governments as Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Education & Skills and Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, took over the role at tonight’s parliamentary party annual general meeting.

Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was elected uncontested as Vice-Chair of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party while Deputy Alan Dillon was elected as the Party Secretary and Deputy Emer Higgins will be Assistant Secretary.

“The recent Covid crisis has shown Fine Gael at its best, displaying competence and sensitivity in protecting the people who are most exposed to risk by this awful virus. It is my aim our parliamentary party adopts a new way of working as a team, so we can make this connection a permanent feature of our work,” Deputy Bruton said.

“As a country we are facing a very different set of challenges and constraints than at the time of the General Election on February 8 last.

“We must manage the enormous new threats facing people. The first task is to get people back to work. But we must do so in a way that delivers the transformational change that will sustain the planet for our children to enjoy. A New Social Contract must be developed to deliver better quality of life, more successful enterprises, and better balance in the workplace.

“This demands hard work and practical well-worked solutions. We must avoid being deflected by those who brazenly offer simplistic solutions which won’t work, or who belittle the efforts of those trying to deliver needed changes,” Deputy Bruton added.

Deputy Carroll MacNeill said one of the key challenges for us a society is ensuring our politics is reflective of our community.

“We simply must ensure a more diverse representation than we have had before, and an obvious first challenge is gender.

“Women are 50% of the population and consistently underrepresented in our representative chambers. This parliamentary party will drive the recruitment of more women to run in future elections for Fine Gael,” Deputy Carroll McNeill said.

Deputy Alan Dillon was elected as secretary to the PP with Emer Higgins taking the position of Assistant Secretary.

“It is an honour to be entrusted by my party colleagues to take on the important role of secretary to the Parliamentary Party and I will endeavour to ensure I make a success of the role,” Deputy Dillon said.