In 2014, his appointment as Minister of State with responsibility for Gaeltacht Affairs and Natural Resources attracted criticism due to his basic knowledge of the Irish language.

A member of Fine Gael until July 2022, McHugh resigned the party whip to vote for an opposition bill on the defective block crisis, after which he continued in the Dáil as an independent TD.

He was elected to Seanad Éireann as a Senator for the Administrative Panel in 2002, where he served as Fine Gael spokesperson on Community, Rural, Gaeltacht and Marine Affairs.

When he was selected as the Dáil candidate for Donegal North-East, he moved into a new constituency office, which was officially opened by Fine Gael party leader Enda Kenny on 6 October 2006.

[5] McHugh was appointed party deputy Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and the Department of the Taoiseach, with special responsibility for North-South Co-operation in October 2007.

In January 2011, McHugh called for a monument, funded by the government, in Donegal, dedicated to the founding of the Ulster Volunteer Force in 1912.

[6] McHugh was criticised by Eileen Doherty, a sister of Donegal County Councillor and Provisional IRA member Eddie Fullerton, who was assassinated by loyalists in 1991.

Doherty claimed McHugh and other Fine Gael councillors in Donegal had snubbed a number of commemorative events and opposed the building of a monument in Fullerton's memory in Buncrana.

[1][2] On 6 July 2022, he resigned the Fine Gael party whip in order to vote for an opposition bill regarding the defective block crisis.