Lawyer Alan Shatter, Ireland's only Jewish member of parliament, has become Minister of Justice, Equality and Defence in the country's new government.

The new prime minister, Enda Kenny, has appointed Mr Shatter in his coalition of the centre-right Fine Gael and the Irish Labour Party. Mr Shatter is MP for Dublin South, where most of Dublin's Jewish community live.

Just 60, Mr Shatter was first elected to the Dail, the Irish parliament, in 1981, but lost his seat at the 2002 general election. He was re-elected in 2007.

He is the author of many Private Member's bills which were subsequently enacted into law in Ireland, particularly in the areas of health, sport and justice. He is also former president of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports.

A staunch supporter of Israel, Mr Shatter clashed repeatedly during the Gaza incursion in 2009 with the Sinn Fein MP Aengus Ó'Snodaigh, who claimed that Mr Shatter and the Israeli ambassador to Ireland had exposed Parliament's foreign affairs committee to "propaganda, twisted logic and half truths".

He is a staunch supporter of Israel