At least 10 of the ministers of State to be named in coming days will not have held office before.

The Cabinet is expected to approve the full complement of 15 second-tier ministers at its meeting on Wednesday, or at the Cabinet meeting which precedes the next sitting of the Dáil on May 17th. Their names will then be announced in the Dáil.

Only five outgoing ministers are in the frame. Among them are Darragh Murphy (Cork North-Central); Damien English (Meath West); Joe McHugh (Donegal); and Michael Ring (Mayo).

Outgoing chief whip Paul Kehoe has been appointed to a super junior role with responsibility for Defence.

Two other Ministers of State were appointed with the main Cabinet last week – the new chief whip Regina Doherty and Independent Finian McGrath, who became a super junior with responsibility for disabilities.

Positions

Of the remaining 12 positions to be filled it is expected that at least three, or possibly four, will be women.

The names that are mentioned by colleagues are Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central) and Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy (Offaly).

The other two women TDs who may be appointed are Helen McEntee (Meath East) and Josepha Madigan, a newly elected TD representing Dublin Rathdown. What might go against Ms McEntee's appointment is the geographical factor: she is a constituency colleague of Ms Doherty's, and Mr English is a TD for neighbouring Meath West.

A geographical spread is always a factor in ministerial appointments.

Negotiation team

Of the backbenchers the two most widely tipped for promotion are Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South) and Sean Kyne (Galway West), both of whom formed part of the Fine Gael negotiations team.

Mr Kyne is one of the few Fine Gael TDs who speaks fluent Irish and might be considered for the Gaeltacht position – the senior Minister in the department, Heather Humphreys, is not an Irish speaker.

Others who could be promoted include high-profile committee chairs David Stanton (Cork East) and Andrew Doyle (Wicklow), as well as Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick) and former minister Fergus O'Dowd (Louth).

Martin Hayden (Kildare South) and john Paul Phelan (Carlow Kilkenny) are also strongly tipped for preferment.

There were suggestions that following Michael Creed's appointment to Cabinet, Enda Kenny might make a conciliatory gesture towards the Waterford TD John Deasy, who has been a long-term critic of party strategy.

However, party sources said that was very unlikely to happen.

Others who might be in contention for promotion include Alan Farrell (Dublin North); Michael D'Arcy (Wexford) and Jim Daly (Cork South West).