Joe McHugh

Joe McHugh
McHugh in 2017
Chair of the Committee on European Union Affairs
In office 15 September 2020 – 8 November 2024
Preceded by	Michael Healy-Rae
Minister for Education and Skills
In office 16 October 2018 – 27 June 2020
Taoiseach	Leo Varadkar
Preceded by	Richard Bruton
Succeeded by	Norma Foley
Minister of State
2017–2018	Government Chief Whip
2017–2018	Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
2016–2018	Taoiseach
2016–2017	Foreign Affairs and Trade
2014–2016	Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
2014–2016	Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Teachta Dála
In office February 2016 – November 2024
Constituency	Donegal
In office May 2007 – February 2016
Constituency	Donegal North-East
Senator
In office 12 September 2002 – 24 May 2007
Constituency	Administrative Panel
Personal details
Born	(1971-07-16) 16 July 1971 (age 53) Carrigart, County Donegal, Ireland
Political party	Independent
Other political affiliations	Fine Gael (until 2022)
Spouse	Olwyn Enright ​ (m. 2005)​
Children	3
Relatives	Tom Enright (father-in-law)
Alma mater	NUI, Maynooth

Joe McHugh (born 16 July 1971) is an Irish former politician who served as chair of the Committee on European Union Affairs from 2020 to 2024. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal constituency 2016 to 2024, and previously from 2007 to 2016 for the Donegal North-East constituency. He served as Minister for Education and Skills from 2018 to 2020 and as a Minister of State from 2014 to 2018, including as Government Chief Whip from 2017 to 2018. He was a Senator for the Administrative Panel from 2002 and 2007.^[1]

In May 2022, McHugh announced that he would not contest the next general election.^[2][3]

Born in Carrigart, County Donegal, in 1971. McHugh was educated at Umlagh National School and the Loreto Convent, Milford. He attended the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where he received an honours degree in economics and sociology, and a higher diploma in education. McHugh taught geography and mathematics at the Loreto Convent Secondary School, Letterkenny, from 1993 to 1995. From 1995 to 1996, he taught A-level economics in Dubai. In 1996, he returned to Ireland and became a youth worker in the Ballyboe area of Letterkenny.^[4]

McHugh won a seat in the Milford local electoral area in the 1999 Donegal County Council election.

He was elected to Seanad Éireann as a Senator for the Administrative Panel in 2002, where he served as Fine Gael spokesperson on Community, Rural, Gaeltacht and Marine Affairs. McHugh set up a full-time constituency office in Letterkenny. When he was selected as the Dáil candidate for Donegal North-East, he moved into a new constituency office, which was officially opened by Fine Gael party leader Enda Kenny on 6 October 2006.^{[citation needed]}

McHugh topped the poll Donegal North-East at the 2007 general election with 22.6% of the first preference vote.^[5] His wife Olwyn Enright also won re-election to the Dáil, making them the third married couple to sit in the same Dáil.^[6] McHugh was appointed party deputy Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and the Department of the Taoiseach, with special responsibility for North-South Co-operation in October 2007. McHugh was re-elected to the Dáil at the 2011 general election, attaining 19.3% of the first-preference vote.

In January 2011, McHugh called for a monument, funded by the government, in Donegal, dedicated to the founding of the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1912.^[7] McHugh was criticised by Eileen Doherty, a sister of Donegal County Councillor and Provisional IRA member Eddie Fullerton, who was assassinated by loyalists in 1991. Doherty claimed McHugh and other Fine Gael councillors in Donegal had snubbed a number of commemorative events and opposed the building of a monument in Fullerton's memory in Buncrana. Fullerton was the third elected official in the Republic of Ireland to be assassinated.^[8]

In Manchester in October 2011, McHugh became the first Fine Gael TD to address delegates from the British Conservative Party. He described it as an "opportunity."^[9]

On 15 July 2014, he was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and at the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht with responsibility for Gaeltacht Affairs and Natural Resources.^[10][11][12] His appointment was met with criticism as his knowledge of the Irish language was at a basic level,^[13][14] although he subsequently received praise for his efforts to improve his language skills to the point where he could conduct lengthy interviews in the language.^[15] RTÉ Radio 1 produced the radio documentary Fine Gaeilgeoir, narrated and produced by Máire Treasa Ní Cheallaigh, following McHugh's efforts to improve his Irish over the course of a year.^[16] Shane Ross later wrote of his fear of having what he described as a "Joe McHugh moment", meaning being a non-Irish speaker to a Gaeltacht ministry.^[17]

In February 2016, McHugh was heavily criticised for allocating 93% of Gaeltacht grants to the Donegal Gaeltacht, which is located in and beside his constituency. This revelation led to calls for McHugh to appear before the Dáil Public Accounts Committee to explain such a disproportionate allocation of funding.^[18] McHugh subsequently denied the claims.^[19]

At the 2016 general election, McHugh was elected to the new five-seater Donegal constituency on the 11th count.^[20] The following May, he met Charles, Prince of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, during their day visit to the county.^[21]

He was appointed as Minister for Education and Skills on 16 October 2018.^[22] He was not re-appointed to the Government of the 33rd Dáil in June 2020, and declined the offer of appointment as a Minister of State.^[23] In September 2020, McHugh became Chair of the Committee on European Union Affairs.

In May 2022, McHugh announced that he would not contest the next general election.^[2][3] On 6 July 2022, McHugh resigned the Fine Gael party whip in order to vote for an opposition bill regarding the defective block crisis.^[24]

In July 2005, McHugh married Olwyn Enright, who served as a Fine Gael TD for Laois–Offaly from 2002 to 2011. They have three children.^[25][26][27]

• Families in the Oireachtas