Helen McEntee

Helen McEntee (born 8 June 1986), is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Minister for Defence since November 2025 and deputy leader of Fine Gael since October 2024. A Teachta Dála (TD) for the Meath East constituency since 2013, she previously served as Minister for Education and Youth from January to November 2025, as Minister for Justice from 2020 to 2025 and as a minister of state from 2016 to 2020. The daughter of Shane McEntee, who served as a Fine Gael TD from 2005 until 2012, she completed a degree in economics, politics, and law at Dublin City University and a master's degree in journalism and media communications at Griffith College. She began working at Leinster House in 2010 as a personal assistant to her father. Following his suicide in December 2012, she successfully contested the 2013 Meath East by-election to replace him; elected at age 26, she became the youngest female TD in the 31st Dáil. Re-elected in the 2016 general election, she served as Minister of State with responsibility for Mental Health and Older People from 2016 to 2017 and as Minister of State for European Affairs from 2017 to 2020. After retaining her seat at the 2020 general election, she was appointed Minister for Justice in June 2020. She had her first child in April 2021, becoming the first cabinet member in the country's history to give birth or take maternity leave while in office. She had a second child in December 2022. Her justice portfolio was temporarily reassigned to Heather Humphreys and Simon Harris respectively during her two six-month periods of maternity leave in 2021 and 2022–2023. Following Humphreys' decision in October 2024 not to contest the next general election, McEntee succeeded her as deputy...