Northern Ireland Executive


The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly, situated in Belfast. 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 government.
The Northern Ireland Executive consists of the first minister and deputy first minister and various ministers with individual portfolios and remits. The main assembly parties appoint most ministers in the executive, except for the Minister of Justice who is elected by a cross-community vote. It is one of three devolved governments in the United Kingdom, the others being the Scottish and Welsh governments.
In January 2017, Sinn Féin deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness resigned in protest over the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal and the Northern Ireland Executive consequently collapsed. The governing of Northern Ireland fell to the civil service in a caretaker capacity until January 2020, when the parties signed the New Decade, New Approach agreement and an Executive was subsequently established. When Democratic Unionist Party First Minister Paul Givan resigned in line with his party's protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed again. No agreement on power-sharing was made after the 2022 Assembly election, and from October 2022 to February 2024, Northern Ireland was again governed by the civil service. On 3 February 2024, Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill was appointed First Minister, the first Irish nationalist to be appointed to the position, with DUP's Emma Little-Pengelly as deputy First Minister.

Legal basis

The Executive were established in law by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 that followed the Good Friday Agreement and its basis was revised by the Northern Ireland Act 2006 that followed the St Andrews Agreement of that year.

Ministers

On 9 May 2016, the number of ministries and departments of the Northern Ireland Executive was reduced, leaving the following departments:
At the same time, various departments were renamed as follows:
The following departments were dissolved:
In contrast with Westminster system cabinets, which generally need only be backed by a majority of legislators, ministerial positions in the Northern Ireland Executive are allocated to parties with significant representation in the Assembly. With the exception of justice, the number of ministries to which each party is entitled is determined by the D'Hondt system, based upon the number of seats in the Assembly which are held by members of each party.
In effect, major parties cannot be excluded from participation in government and power-sharing is enforced by the system. The form of government is therefore known as mandatory coalition as opposed to voluntary coalition where parties negotiate an agreement to share power. The Democratic Unionist Party, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and some Social Democratic and Labour Party members favour a move towards voluntary coalition in the longer term but this is currently opposed by Sinn Féin.
The executive cannot function if either of the two largest parties refuse to take part, as these parties are allocated the first minister and deputy first minister positions. However, other parties are not required to enter the executive even if they are entitled to do so; instead, they can choose to go into opposition if they wish. There were some calls for the SDLP and the UUP to enter opposition after the 2007 Assembly elections, but ultimately the two parties chose to take the seats in the Executive to which they were entitled.
In 2010, an exception to the D'Hondt system for allocating the number of ministerial portfolios was made under the Hillsborough Castle Agreement to allow the cross-community Alliance Party of Northern Ireland to hold the politically contentious policing and justice brief when most of those powers were devolved to the Assembly. Devolution took place on 12 April 2010.
Under D'Hondt, the SDLP would have been entitled to the extra ministerial seat on the revised Executive created by the devolution of policing and justice. Accordingly, both the UUP and SDLP protested that Alliance was not entitled, under the rules of the Good Friday Agreement, to fill the portfolio and refused to support this move. However, Alliance leader David Ford was elected Minister with the support of the DUP and Sinn Féin.
On 26 August 2015, the UUP announced it would withdraw from the Executive and form an opposition after all, in response to the assassination of Kevin McGuigan.
On 25 May 2016 a new executive was announced. For the first time in the assembly's history, parties that were entitled to ministries chose instead to go into opposition following a recent bill providing parties with this choice. This meant that the executive was formed only by the two major parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin, and thus giving them more seats in the Executive.

Procedure

The Executive is co-chaired by the first minister and deputy first minister. Its official functions are:
  • acting as a forum for the discussion of, and agreement on, issues which cut across the responsibilities of two or more ministers;
  • prioritising executive and legislative proposals;
  • discussing and agreeing upon significant or controversial matters; and
  • recommending a common position where necessary.
Executive meetings are normally held fortnightly, compared to weekly meetings of the British Cabinet and Irish Government. Under the Executive's Ministerial Code, ministers are obliged to:
The Ministerial Code allows any three ministers to request a cross-community vote. The quorum for voting is seven ministers.
The current system of devolution has succeeded long periods of direct rule, when the Northern Ireland Civil Service had a considerable influence on government policy. The legislation which established new departments in 1999 affirmed that "the functions of a department shall at all times be exercised subject to the direction and control of the Minister". Ministerial powers can be conferred by an Act of the Assembly and ministers can also exercise executive powers which are vested in the Crown.
Ministers are also subject to several limitations, including the European Convention on Human Rights, European Union law, other international obligations of the UK, a requirement not to discriminate on religious or political grounds, and having no power over reserved and excepted matters.
Ministerial decisions can be challenged by a petition of 30 Northern Ireland Assembly members. This action can be taken for alleged breaches of the Ministerial Code and on "matters of public importance". The Speaker of the Assembly must consult political party leaders in the Assembly before deciding whether the subject is a matter of public importance. Successful petitions will then be considered by the Executive.
The number of ministers and their responsibilities can be changed when a department is being established or dissolved. The proposal must be made by the First Minister and the deputy First Minister and be carried by a cross-community vote in the Assembly. The number of departments was initially limited to 10 but this increased to 11 upon the devolution of justice.
Ministers are disqualified from holding office if appointed to the Government of Ireland or as the chairman or deputy chairman of an Oireachtas committee.

Strategies

The Good Friday Agreement states that the Executive will "seek to agree each year, and review as necessary" a Programme for Government incorporating an agreed budget.
The following programmes for government have been published to date:
The following budgets have been published to date:
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Under the St Andrews Agreement, the Executive is obliged to adopt strategies on the following policy matters:
  • enhancing and protecting the development of the Irish language;
  • enhancing and developing Ulster Scots language, heritage and culture; and
  • tackling poverty, social exclusion and patterns of deprivation based on objective need.
The Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister published a child poverty strategy in March 2011. The wider anti-poverty strategy was carried over from direct rule in November 2006. As of November 2011, neither an Irish language strategy nor an Ulster Scots strategy had been adopted. The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure states that a Strategy for Indigenous or Regional Minority Languages "will be presented to the Executive in due course".