Helen McEntee

Helen McEntee TD
McEntee in 2018
Minister for Justice
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 June 2023
Taoiseach	Leo Varadkar Simon Harris
Preceded by	Simon Harris
In office 1 November 2021 – 25 November 2022
Taoiseach	Micheál Martin
Preceded by	Heather Humphreys
Succeeded by	Heather Humphreys
In office 27 June 2020 – 27 April 2021
Taoiseach	Micheál Martin
Preceded by	Charles Flanagan
Succeeded by	Heather Humphreys
Minister of State
2017–2020	European Affairs
2016–2017	Health
Teachta Dála
Incumbent
Assumed office March 2013
Constituency	Meath East
Personal details
Born	(1986-06-08) 8 June 1986 (age 38) Navan, County Meath, Ireland
Political party	Fine Gael
Spouse	Paul Hickey ​ (m. 2017)​
Relations	Andy McEntee (uncle) Gerry McEntee (uncle) Shane McEntee (cousin)
Children	2
Parent	Shane McEntee (father)
Education	St. Joseph's Secondary School
Alma mater	Dublin City University Griffith College
Website	Personal page on Fine Gael website

Helen McEntee (born 8 June 1986) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Minister for Justice since June 2020, although her portfolio was temporarily reassigned during two six-month periods of maternity leave in 2021 and 2022–2023. A Teachta Dála (TD) for the Meath East constituency since 2013, she previously served as a minister of state from 2016 to 2020.

The daughter of Shane McEntee, a Fine Gael TD from 2005 to 2012, she was raised on her family's farm in Castletown-Kilpatrick, County Meath. She studied economics, politics and law at Dublin City University and earned a master's degree in journalism and media communications from Griffith College Dublin. 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, becoming the first Fine Gael candidate since 1975 to win a by-election with the party in government. At age 26, she became the second-youngest TD in Dáil Éireann and the youngest woman. Re-elected at the 2016 general election, she was appointed Minister of State with responsibility for Mental Health and Older People from 2016 to 2017 and Minister of State for European Affairs from 2017 to 2020. In 2017, she married Paul Hickey, whom she met while he was a parliamentary assistant to Fine Gael politician Joe McHugh.

In June 2020, after Fine Gael formed a coalition government with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, McEntee was appointed Minister for Justice. In December 2020, she announced that she was pregnant with her first child; she gave birth to a baby boy in April 2021 and returned to work in November. She was the first Cabinet member in the country's history to become pregnant, give birth, or take maternity leave while in office. She gave birth to another baby boy in December 2022 and returned to work in June 2023. During her periods of maternity leave, she was a minister without portfolio while Heather Humphreys and then Simon Harris served as Minister for Justice.

In her role as minister, McEntee has taken a strong stance on violence against women, pledging a "zero-tolerance" approach following the high-profile murder of Ashling Murphy in January 2022. However, she has faced criticism over public safety in Dublin city centre, especially following the November 2023 Dublin riot, when she survived a vote of no confidence tabled by opposition party Sinn Féin. Her effort to introduce hate speech legislation to Ireland, first announced in 2020, has attracted domestic and international criticism, with opponents of the proposed measures, including Elon Musk, arguing that they threaten privacy and freedom of speech. McEntee has also faced criticism over her handling of issues surrounding asylum seekers, especially following the passage of the UK's Safety of Rwanda Bill, which led to increased numbers of asylum seekers entering the Republic of Ireland from the UK.