7th Northern Ireland Assembly | |||
---|---|---|---|
| |||
Overview | |||
Legislative body | Assembly | ||
Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland | ||
Meeting place | Parliament Buildings, Stormont | ||
Term | 5 May 2022 – present | ||
Election | 2022 Assembly election | ||
Government | Executive of the 7th Assembly | ||
Members | 90 | ||
Speaker | Edwin Poots | ||
First Minister | Michelle O'Neill | ||
Deputy First Minister | Emma Little-Pengelly |
This is a list of the 90 members of the seventh Northern Ireland Assembly , the unicameral devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. The election took place on 5 May 2022, with counting continuing the following 2 days; voter turnout was estimated at 64.4%.
Five MLAs were elected from each of the 18 constituencies. Sinn Féin became the biggest party for the first time, entitling them to the First Minister. Additionally, Alliance, the biggest cross-community party, also had a big increase, overtaking the SDLP and UUP in votes to become third in the assembly, following the DUP, the biggest Unionist party.
The DUP blocked the formation of an Executive until a meeting of the Assembly on 3 February 2024. [1]
Party | Designation | Elected | Current | |
---|---|---|---|---|
● | Sinn Féin | Nationalist | 27 | 27 |
● | Democratic Unionist Party | Unionist | 25 | 24 |
● | Alliance Party of Northern Ireland | Other | 17 | 17 |
● | Ulster Unionist Party | Unionist | 9 | 9 |
♦ | Social Democratic and Labour Party | Nationalist | 8 | 7 |
Independent Unionist | Unionist | 2 | 2 | |
Traditional Unionist Voice | Unionist | 1 | 1 | |
People Before Profit | Other | 1 | 1 | |
Independent Nationalist | Nationalist | 0 | 1 | |
Speaker [n 1] | None | 0 | 1 | |
Totals by Designation | Unionist | 37 | 36 | |
Nationalist | 35 | 35 | ||
Other | 18 | 18 | ||
None | 0 | 1 | ||
Total | 90 | |||
● = Northern Ireland Executive; ♦ = Official Opposition |
Parties arranged roughly on the nationalist-unionist spectrum
* Party Leader in Stormont
† Co-opted to replace an elected MLA
‡ Changed affiliation during the term
° Deputy Speaker
Members are ranked by their order of election, and if co-opted, the position of the person who they co-opted.
* Party Leader in Stormont
† Co-opted to replace an elected MLA
‡ Changed affiliation during the term
Date co-opted | Constituency | Party | Outgoing | Co-optee | Reason | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
12 May 2022 | Lagan Valley | DUP | Jeffrey Donaldson | Emma Little Pengelly | Jeffrey Donaldson remaining as the Member of Parliament for Lagan Valley. [2] | |
4 April 2023 | North Antrim | Alliance | Patricia O'Lynn | Sian Mulholland | Patricia O'Lynn resigned. [3] | |
15 September 2023 | East Antrim | DUP | David Hilditch | Cheryl Brownlee | David Hilditch resigned. [4] | |
29 April 2024 | South Down | Alliance | Patrick Brown | Andrew McMurray | Patrick Brown resigned. [5] |
Date | Constituency | Name | Previous affiliation | New affiliation | Circumstance | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3 February 2024 | Belfast South | Edwin Poots | DUP | Speaker | Edwin Poots elected Speaker of the Assembly at its first sitting. [6] | ||
3 February 2024 | Newry and Armagh | Justin McNulty | SDLP | Independent Nationalist | Whip suspended after leaving Assembly session early to manage Laois GAA at a gaelic match. [7] |
The Northern Ireland Assembly, often referred to by the metonym Stormont, is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive. It sits at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast.
The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is answerable to the assembly and was initially established according to the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which followed the Good Friday Agreement. The executive is referred to in the legislation as the Executive Committee of the assembly and is an example of consociationalist ("power-sharing") government.
The 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday, 26 November 2003, after being suspended for just over a year. It was the second election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. Each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies elected six members by single transferable vote, giving a total of 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The election was contested by 18 parties and many independent candidates.
James Hugh Allister is a British Unionist politician and barrister in Northern Ireland. He founded the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) political party in 2007, leading the party since its formation. Allister has served as a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Antrim since 2011, and is the TUV’s only representative in the Assembly.
The 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday, 7 March 2007. It was the third election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. The election saw endorsement of the St Andrews Agreement and the two largest parties, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin, along with the Alliance Party, increase their support, with falls in support for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
Michelle O'Neill is an Irish politician who has served as First Minister of Northern Ireland since February 2024 and Vice President of Sinn Féin since 2018. She has also been the MLA for Mid Ulster in the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2007. O'Neill was previously deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2020 to 2022.
The First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland are the joint heads of government of Northern Ireland, leading the Northern Ireland Executive and with overall responsibility for the running of the Executive Office. Despite the titles of the two offices, the two positions have the same governmental power, resulting in a duumvirate; the deputy First Minister, customarily spelled with a lowercase d, is not subordinate to the First Minister. Created under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, both were initially nominated and appointed by members of the Northern Ireland Assembly on a joint ticket by a cross-community vote, under consociational principles. That process was changed following the 2006 St Andrews Agreement, such that the First Minister now is nominated by the largest party overall, and the deputy First Minister is nominated by the largest party from the next largest community block.
The 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election took place on Thursday, 5 May, following the dissolution of the Northern Ireland Assembly at midnight on 24 March 2011. It was the fourth election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998.
The 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2016. It was the fifth election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. 1,281,595 individuals were registered to vote in the election. Turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 703,744 (54.9%), a decline of less than one percentage point from the previous Assembly Election in 2011, but down 15 percentage points from the first election to the Assembly held in 1998.
The fourth Northern Ireland Assembly was the unicameral devolved legislature of Northern Ireland following the 2011 assembly election on 5 May 2011. This iteration of the elected Assembly convened for the first time on 12 May 2011 in Parliament Buildings in Stormont, and ran for a full term.
Pamela (Pam) Cameron is a Unionist politician from Northern Ireland, who has served as a Junior Minister in the Executive of the 7th Northern Ireland Assembly since 2024. She is a member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
The 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Thursday, 2 March 2017. The election was held to elect members (MLAs) following the resignation of deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in protest over the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal. McGuinness' position was not filled, and thus by law his resignation triggered an election.
This is a list of the members of the fifth Northern Ireland Assembly, the unicameral devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) elected on 5 May 2016 or subsequently co-opted are listed by party and by constituency.
The 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on 5 May 2022. It elected 90 members to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It was the seventh assembly election since the establishment of the assembly in 1998. The election was held three months after the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed due to the resignation of the First Minister, Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.
This is a list of the 90 members of the sixth Northern Ireland Assembly, the unicameral devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. The election took place on 2 March 2017, with counting finishing the following day; voter turnout was estimated at 64.8%.
A Northern Ireland Assembly election will be held to elect 90 members to the Northern Ireland Assembly by 6 May 2027.
The Executive of the 7th Northern Ireland Assembly was appointed on 3 February 2024, following the 2022 election to the seventh Northern Ireland Assembly held on 5 May 2022 and the protracted negotiations leading up to the 2024 Northern Ireland Executive formation. The newly elected assembly met for the first time on 13 May 2022. It is led by Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Féin as First Minister and Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP as deputy First Minister.
Local elections were held in Northern Ireland on 18 May 2023. The elections were delayed by two weeks to avoid overlapping with the coronation of King Charles III. Following the elections, Sinn Féin became the largest party in local government for the first time. It also marked the first time that nationalist parties had garnered a greater share of the vote than unionist parties, however, despite this, there were more unionist councillors elected than nationalists.
Events from the year 2024 in Northern Ireland.
The 2024 Northern Ireland Executive formation followed on from the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, but was delayed to February 2024. The 22 months delay in the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive resulted from a boycott of the process by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Eventually it resulted in the formation of the Executive of the 7th Northern Ireland Assembly, led by Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Féin as First Minister and Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP as deputy First Minister.