The Northern Ireland Assembly

Timetable of the Formation of the Assembly

The Northern Ireland Assembly was first agreed upon as part of the Good Friday Agreement, which was ratified by the political parties on 10 April 1998.
The Agreement was ratified separately by the people of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic on 10 May 1998. The Assembly was officially created at this point, although it as yet held no powers.
The Assembly is unusual amoung democratic parliaments in that some decisions require separate majorities of Nationalist and Unionist members in order to be passed, rather than a single majority. There are 108 seats, with a post of First Minister and Deputy First Minister. There are also 10 ministerial posts, each representing a facet of Northern Irish government. Each Ministry also has a chairman, who must be from a different party to the Minister. The 10 Ministers along with the 2 First Ministers form the Executive, which was to be formed at a later date.
Elections to the Assembly were held in June 1998, and the Assembly met in shadow format shortly afterwards. In the election, the UUP had 28 seats, SDLP 24, DUP 20, Sinn Fein 18, Alliance 6, UKUP 5, PUP 2, Women's Coalition 2 and 3 independent candidates.
The Executive was to be formed and power was due to be devolved shortly afterwards, but political wrangling, chiefly between the UUP and Sinn Fein, prevented this from happening for a long time. The Assembly did not meet during this time, and Northern Ireland continued to be run from London.
On 21 September 1998, the 3 independent candidates formed the United Unionist Assembly Party.
On 15 January 1999, 4 of the 5 UKUP Assembly members broke away and formed the Northern Ireland Unionist Party.
In July 1999, the UK government decided to stop the political wrangling by forcing the formation of the Executive. However, the Unionist members boycotted the meeting, and the Executive was set up with only Nationalist ministers. It was dissolved again within an hour. That was technically Northern Ireland's first governing Executive, but it will probably not go down in history as such.
In the summer of 1999, Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon resigned.
In the Autumn of 1999, there was a review of the Good Friday Agreement in which the UUP and Sinn Fein eventually resolved their problems. The UK government representative in Northern Ireland (Mo Mowlam) was replaced by Peter Mandelson during this time.
On 29 November 1999, the Executive was formed for a second time (read about this). This time things went to plan. The UUP formed the Executive in return for an indication that the IRA would begin decommissioning. Details of the ministries can be found below. Seamus Mallon was reinstated as Deputy First Minister.
On 2 December 1999, Roger Hutchinson was expelled from the Northern Ireland Unionist Party. He then became an independent.
At 17:40 on 11 February 2000 the Executive and Assembly were suspended by the UK government (read about this) due to the failure of the IRA to begin decommissioning.
Following the IRA's decision to allow independent inspection of a small number of its arms dumps, a proposal which was very narrowly accepted by the UUP, the Executive was reinstanted and powers returned to the Assembly on 30 May 2000. So far it has survived.
On 27 July 2000, the two DUP ministers Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds resigned to be replaced by Maurice Morrow and Gregory Campbell. This is part of their strategy of non-cooperation.
On 16 November 2000, Independent Unionist Roger Hutchinson (NIUP party member from Jan to Dec 1999) joined the DUP.
On 4 December 2000, SDLP leader John Hume resigned as an Assembly Member, to concentrate on his work at the UK Parliament at Westminister and in the European Parliament. He was replaced 7 days later by the SDLP's Annie Courtney.
On 24 Jan 2001, the UK government representative in Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson, was replaced by former Scottish Secretary Dr John Reid.
On 1 July 2001, the First Minister David Trimble resigned in protest at the continued failure of the IRA to begin decommissioning. By Assembly rules, this automatically caused Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon to lose his post also. There was then 4 months of political discussions culminating in a gesture of IRA decommissioning in October 2001.
On 17 September 2001, SDLP leader John Hume retired from the leadership.
On 2 November 2001, David Trimble (UUP) and Mark Durkan (SDLP) failed to be elected as First and Deputy First Ministers by one vote, when two members of the UUP (Peter Weir and Pauline Armitage) voted against their own leader.
On 6 November 2001, David Trimble (UUP) and Mark Durkan (SDLP) were elected First and Deputy First Ministers when several members of the non-aligned Alliance Party temporarily redesignated themselves as Unionists in order to swing the vote in favour of Trimble and Durkan. This resulted in 31 of 60 Unionist votes in favour. All 38 Nationalists voted in favour.
On 10 November 2001, Peter Weir was expelled from the UUP (see 2 Nov above). Pauline Armitage was suspended.
On 11 November 2001, Mark Durkan was elected to the leadership of the SDLP. However, he had been the only nominee so the post had been known since 28 September 2001.

The 12 Ministers who sit on the Northern Ireland Executive The real power of the Assembly is the 12-strong Executive appointed by the directly elected Assembly. The first two posts are First and Deputy First Minister. Click here for the web site of these posts. First Minister: David Trimble (since 6 Nov 2001) Deputy First Minister: Mark Durkan (since 6 Nov 2001) The remaining 10 members are appointed to a Ministry, each of which is in charge of a particular aspect of government. Each Ministry also has a Chairman who must be from a different persuasion to the Minister. The following is the current list of Ministers and links to the Ministry's web site:
Ministry	Minister on Executive	Minister's Party
Agriculture and Rural Development	Brid Rodgers	SDLP
Culture, Arts and Leisure	Michael McGimpsey	UUP
Education	Martin McGuinness	Sinn Fein
Employment and Learning	Carmel Hanna	SDLP
Enterprise, Trade and Investment	Reg Empey	UUP
Environment	Sam Foster	UUP
Finance and Personnel	Sean Farran	SDLP
Health, Social Services and Public Safety	Bairbre de Brun	Sinn Fein
Regional Development	Peter Robinson	DUP
Social Development	Gregory Campbell	DUP

The 108 Assembly Members
The 108-strong Assembly is made up as follows: 27 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) 24 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) 21 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) 18 Sinn Fein 6 Alliance Party 3 Northern Ireland Unionist Party (NIUP) 3 United Unionist Assembly Party (UUAP) 2 Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) 2 Northern Ireland Womens' Coalition (NIWC) 1 United Kingdom Unionist Party (UKUP) 1 independent Unionist assembly member The names of these are as follows (party leaders in bold face): .
Ulster Unionist Party Ian Adamson (Belfast East) Pauline Armitage (Londonderry East) Billy Armstrong (Mid Ulster) Roy Beggs Junior (Antrim East) William Bell (Lagan Valley) Thomas Benson (Strangford) Esmond Birnie (Belfast South) Joan Carson (Fermanagh / S. Tyrone) Fred Cobain (Belfast North) Robert Coulter (Antrim North) Ivan Davis (Lagan Valley) Reg Empey (Belfast East) Sam Foster (Fermanagh / S. Tyrone) John Gorman (North Down) Derek Hussey (West Tyrone) Danny Kennedy (Newry & Armagh) James Leslie (Antrim North) David McClarty (Londonderry East) Alan McFarland (North Down) Michael McGimpsey (Belfast South) Dermot Nesbitt (Down South) Ken Robinson (Antrim East) George Savage (Upper Bann) Duncan Shipley-Dalton (Antrim South) John Taylor (Strangford) David Trimble (Upper Bann) Jim Wilson (Antrim South) . SDLP Alex Attwood (Belfast West) Patrick Bradley (Down South) Joe Byrne (Tyrone West) Annie Courtney (Foyle)⁵ John Dallat (Londonderry East) Arthur Doherty (Londonderry East) Mark Durkan (Foyle) Sean Farren (Antrim North) John Fee (Newry & Armagh) Tommy Gallagher (F'agh / S Tyrone) Carmel Hanna (Belfast South) Denis Haughey (Mid Ulster) Joe Hendron (Belfast West) Patricia Lewsley (Lagan Valley) Alban Maginness (Belfast North) Seamus Mallon (Newry & Armagh) Donovon McClelland (Antrim South) Alasdair McDonnell (Belfast South) Eddie McGrady (Down South) Eugene McMenamin (Tyrone West) Danny O'Connor (Antrim East) Eamon O'Neill (Down South) Brid Rodgers (Upper Bann) John Tierney (Foyle) . United Unionist Assembly Party William Agnew (Belfast North)³ Boyd Douglas (Londonderry East)³ Denis Watson (Upper Bann)³ . United Kingdom Unionist Party Robert McCartney (North Down) Independents Peter Weir (North Down)⁶	Democratic Unionist Party Paul Berry (Newry & Armagh) Gregory Campbell (Londonderry East) Mervyn Carrick (Upper Bann) Wilson Clyde (Antrim South) Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) Oliver Gibson (Tyrone West) Willian Hay (Foyle) David Hilditch (Antrim East) Roger Hutchinson (Antrim East)^1,2,4 Gardiner Kane (Antrim North) William McCrea (Mid Ulster) Maurice Morrow (Fermanagh / S Tyrone) Ian Paisley (Antrim North) Ian Paisley Junior (Antrim North) Edwin Poots (Lagan Valley) Iris Robinson (Strangford) Mark Robinson (Belfast South) Peter Robinson (Belfast East) Jim Shannon (Strangford) Jim Wells (Down South) Sammy Wilson (Belfast East) . Sinn Fein Gerry Adams (Belfast West) Bairbre De Brun (Belfast West) Pat Docherty (West Tyrone) Michelle Gildernew (F'agh / S Tyrone) Gerry Kelly (Belfast North) John Kelly (Mid Ulster) Alex Maskey (Belfast West) Barry McElduff (West Tyrone) Martin McGuinness (Mid Ulster) Gerry McHugh (Fermanagh / S Tyrone) Mitchell McLaughlin (Foyle) Pat McNamee (Newry & Armagh) Francie Molloy (Mid Ulster) Conor Murphy (Newry & Armagh) Mick Murphy (Down South) Mary Nelis (Foyle) Dara O'Hagan (Upper Bann) Sue Ramsey (Belfast West) . Alliance Party John Alderdice (Belfast East) Eileen Bell (North Down) Seamus Close (Lagan Valley) David Ford (Antrim South) Kieran McCarthy (Strangford) Sean Neeson (Antrim East) . Northern Ireland Unionist Party Norman Boyd (Antrim South)¹ Patrick Roche (Lagan Valley)¹ Cedric Wilson (Strangford)¹ . Progressive Unionist Party David Ervine (Belfast East) Billy Hutchinson (Belfast North) . NI Womens' Coalition Monica McWilliams (Belfast South) Jane Morrice (North Down)
Footnotes: ^{1 Elected as United Kingdom Unionist Party, but split and formed the NIUP on 15 January 1999.} ^{2 Expelled from the Northern Ireland Unionist Party on 2 December 1999.} ^{3 Elected as independents, but formed the United Unionist Assembly party on 21 September 1998.} ^{4 Joined the DUP on 16 November 2000.} 5 Since 11 December 2000. She replaced party leader John Hume, who resigned as an Assembly Member on 4 December 2000 to concentrate on his work at the UK Parliament at Westminister and in the European Parliament. 6 Expelled from the UUP on 10 November 2001 for voting against the party leader.