Alan Shatter Ireland's only Jewish member of parliament, has been appointed as new Irish justice minister. Shatter was sworn in Wednesday. Following last week’s parliamentary election, a coalition government of his center-right Fine Gael Party and the liberal Labor Party was formed. Shatter represents a constituency in the south of Dublin, where most of Ireland's Jews live.
For Shatter, who is 60 years old, the appointment marks the culmination of 30 years in politics, during which he made a name for himself as a reformer of Ireland's conservative family laws. Shatter is the second Jewish Cabinet minister in Ireland's history after Mervyn Taylor in the 1990s. He also is well known as a staunch supporter of Israel.
