Since Micheal Creed vacated the Minister's Office at Agriculture House, it’s been a turbulent few months for the department.
The third Minister for Agriculture is about to take office, if you include the Taoiseach’s stint as acting Minister; never before has any calendar year had more Ministers for Agriculture serve in office.
It’s far from ideal, especially in a department that oversees a multi-billion euro industry, which is of vital importance to rural and coastal communities and to consumers.
It is the department for what we eat, and let’s face it, few things are more important than food.
As Charlie McConalogue takes the reins at the department, he will be making up for lost time. His counterparts have had their feet under the desk for weeks.
His big advantage is that he understands the brief better than most.
In fact it has been argued that he has a much deeper understanding of the portfolio than his two predecessors, Barry Cowen and Dara Calleary.
His time as agriculture spokesperson for Fianna Fáil will stand to him. It means that he knows the people in the sector that he will be dealing with.
Already the officials in 'Ag House’ have organised two rounds of meetings between the various industry groups for the previous two ministers. This week, they are organising a third.
It involves the various groups coming in and discussing their issues with the minister, his officials and most importantly the Secretary General of the Department, Brendan Gleeson.
A long-serving and highly respected senior civil servant, Mr Gleeson’s stewardship over the past few months, and in the months ahead, will be vital.
The sector will like that the fact that the 42-year-old Donegal TD is from a farming background; he was educated at Carndonagh Community School, before going on to study at UCD where he studied Economics, Politics and History.
After working in Fianna Fáil's headquarters for a number of years, as well as working abroad in Australia, he returned home to work on the family farm in Donegal.
In 2009, he ran for political office when he was elected to Donegal County Council. Just two years later he was elected a TD for Donegal North East.
He may have been Micheál Martin’s third choice for the job, but the Taoiseach said he will "discharge his role with distinction", when he confirmed him for the role in the Dáil.
The two big priorities for Minister McConalogue will be Brexit and the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. Both have the potential to impact agriculture and food production, not to mention fisheries, very negatively.
Farmers fear a loss in income as a result of CAP reform, they also fear more stringent regulations.
Brexit, well that’s a different story. It presents one of the single biggest challenges to the sector in decades.
As a food exporting island, we are hugely dependent on the UK. The loss of access to UK waters for fishing could spell the end of large parts of the Irish fishing fleet.
The most profitable fish are in UK waters. We have access to them now, but when Brexit happens there is a real concern that could be lost.
As a Donegal TD, Charlie McConalogue knows the importance of the fishing sector.
Killybegs is one of the biggest fishing ports in the country, his constituents rely on it and the sector for thousands of jobs.
Dara Calleary discussed the issue with the EU Fisheries Commissioner Virginius Sinkevičius in July.
Minister McConalogue will have to restart that conversation. The fact he is a TD with a major fishing port on his doorstep, will mean the weight of expectation will be all the greater.
He should know what the industry expects of him. Within minutes of his appointment the farming organisations were out of the traps.
The largest of them, the IFA, saying that they expect the new minister to "back farmers at the Cabinet table". The ICMSA warned there was, "no time for a honeymoon period".
September starts with the fifth Minister for Agriculture so far in 2020, both Minister McConalogue and the Government will be hoping the so-called "curse of Ag House" has passed and he remains minister for a while.
