Justice Minister Helen McEntee confirms she's expecting a baby

JUSTICE Minister Helen McEntee has confirmed she is expecting a baby next May.

The Cabinet Minister and Meath East TD took to Instagram to announce the happy news - she will become the first Cabinet minister in the history of the State to be pregnant while in office.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....Last Christmas as a duo though #babyonboard #excited," wrote the 34-year-old Fine Gael TD.

A spokesperson for the Minister said: "Minister McEntee and her husband Paul Hickey are delighted to be expecting their first child, due in May 2021."

Ms McEntee was appointed to Cabinet in June. She was first elected to Dail Eireann in 2013 in a by-election following the untimely death of her father Shane.

The couple were married in the summer of 2017 in her parish church in Castletown, near the village of Nobber.

She is one of only 22 women to have serve as a senior government minister since the foundation of the State and she is currently one of only three women who is a full Cabinet minister in the current Coalition government.

Mr Hickey served as a former parliamentary assistant to Fine Gael TD and former education minister Joe McHugh.