Paul Givan named as Northern Ireland’s first minister designate
about 4 years in The Irish Times
Paul Givan has been announced as the new first minister of Northern Ireland designate.
The Democratic Unionist Party MLA will replace Arlene Foster who announced she would step down from the role in April.
New leader of theDUP Edwin Poots named his new Stormont ministerial team on Tuesday, as the party attempts to recover from a number of resignations.
The roles have been designated at this stage, with the appointments post-dated to take effect later.
Mrs Foster previously indicated she would stand down when Mr Poots named a new ministerial team, but Mr Poots said Mrs Foster will remain as First Minister to lead a British-Irish Council meeting in her home constituency of Fermanagh on Friday.
Among the new ministerial appointments are Gary Middleton as junior minister, Paul Frew as economy minister and Michelle McIlveen as minister of education.
Mr Poots also announced MLAs William Humphrey as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Christopher Stalford as principal deputy speaker and vice-chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee, Tom Buchanan as vice-chairman of Procedures, Keith Buchanan as vice-chairman of the Finance Committee and Gordon Lyons as vice-chairman of the Health Committee.
David Hilditch has been named as the vice-chairman of the Infrastructure Committee, while William Irwin will be vice-chairman of the Audit Committee.
Other appointments include Pam Cameron as chairwoman of Assembly and Executive Review Committee, Mervyn Storey as chairman of the Justice Committee, Johnathan Buckley as chairman of the Infrastructure Committee and Paula Bradley as chairwoman of the Communities Committee.
The appointments come as the DUP has been left reeling by a number of resignations.
‘Mind-blowing arrogance’
The latest member to leave described the “mind-blowing arrogance” of some during a meeting to ratify the appointment of the new leader.
South Down DUP constituency association chairman and councillor Glyn Hanna, his daughter, Diane Forsythe, association member Richard McKee and councillor Kathryn Owen all announced their resignations this week.
The latest to quit is Upper Bann association member Roberta McNally.
In her resignation statement posed on social media, Ms McNally referred to scenes at a party Executive meeting to ratify Mr Poots as leader last month.
“Having been at the meeting myself, I also witnessed senior members telling people to put their hands down to enable the vote to be open,” she said. “It was clear that those of us who did put our hands up were being noted. The arrogance of some senior members at the meeting was mind-blowing.
“I personally, until now, have enjoyed my time in the DUP and it was a great privilege to be elected on to the Executive. I am extremely sorry to say that I informed the Upper Bann chairman of my resignation.”
Mr Poots has conceded that members of the party “have been bruised” over its leadership election.
The Minister of Agriculture told the BBC’s Spotlight that it could take “a little time to heal”.
“I think it is peripheral, but nonetheless I don’t want to lose anybody from the party,” he said. “I will be continuing to reach out to people to seek to ensure that we keep as many people as possible and to bring new people into the party.”– PA