Blog: Stormont Re-Opens with Women at the Helm

Excerpted from Stormont Re-Opens with Women at the Helm, by Maura Reilly:

On January 10th, the suspension of Northern Ireland’s Legislative Assembly, also known as Stormont, officially ended with the reinstatement of a power-sharing deal between the Sinn Féin and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Stormont deteriorated in January 2017, when former Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) resigned in protest over the Cash for Ash Scandal, in which a renewable heat incentive headed up by the DUP cost the government hundreds of millions of pounds.

The practice of power-sharing in Stormont was established in Northern Ireland Act 1998 following the Good Friday Accords. The Act stipulates the largest party in the assembly names the First Minister and the second largest names the Deputy First Minister; despite the difference in title, both Ministers hold equal power in the executive. In the newly established power-sharing government at Stormont, Arlene Foster (DUP) serves as First Minister, Michelle O’Neill (Sinn Féin) serves as Deputy First Minister. This is the first time since the establishment of the power-sharing deal in 1998 in which women hold both of the top executive positions.

The remaining seven ministerial positions in the executive body are filled by the d’Hondt mechanism, granting positions to parties based on the number of MLAs they have. The Alliance Party, a cross-community party, was granted the Justice Ministry, despite not earning enough seats to hold a ministerial position. Justice has long been the most controversial and precarious position to fill because of their control over the police and courts, both of which played a pivotal role during The Troubles. Of the eight ministerial positions in the executive, five are currently held by women.

Read the full article here.

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