The further education minister was the only candidate to put his name forward in the Fine Gael leadership contest to replace the outgoing Leo Varadkar.
Simon Harris is set to become the next prime minister of Ireland – following the shock resignation of Leo Varadkar.
Mr Harris, Ireland’s further education minister, was the only candidate to put his name forward in the Fine Gael leadership contest.
The party confirmed he would take over as leader on Sunday.
“Simon Harris is ideally placed to lead this party forward and everybody in this room should get 100% behind him,” minister Simon Coveney said at the announcement.
It paves the way for the 37-year-old to become the country’s youngest premier.
“It’s the absolute honour of my life… to accept the leadership of this great party,” Mr Harris said in his first speech, in which he paid tribute to his predecessor, reiterated his party’s pro-European stance and its support for Ukraine, and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
He also stressed the need to “cleave to those fundamental values which have served this nation well”.
“Hope. Enterprise. Equality of Opportunity. Integrity. Security,” he said.
“I have been in this party since I was 15 years old, and those values meant and mean everything to me.”
And while he called for a “more planned” and “sustainable” model for immigration – an issue at the heart of destructive riots in Dublin last year – he urged the party to “fight against populism and deliberate polarisation”.
“We must and we will do this with civility, with honesty, with a determination to debate without rancour and personal demonisation,” he added.
Mr Harris will likely be formally elected as taoiseach in the Dail – the Irish parliament’s lower house – in April following the Easter recess.