Assembly Background
The New Northern Ireland Assembly was established as part of the Belfast Agreement reached at the multi-party negotiations on Friday 10 April, now commonly referred to as the 'Good Friday Agreement'.
Under the Agreement , the Assembly has full legislative and executive authority in respect of those matters previously within the remit of 6 Northern Ireland government departments:
Following a referendum held on 22 May 1998 which resulted in a majority voting in favour of the agreement, the New Northern Ireland Assembly was constituted under the The Northern Ireland (Elections) Act 1998
108 members were elected to the Assembly on 25 June 1998 by Proportional Representation (Single Transferable Vote) from the existing 18 Westminster constituencies.
Lord Alderdice was appointed as the initial Presiding Officer of the New Northern Ireland Assembly by the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Dr Marjorie Mowlam, MP.
The New Northern Ireland Assembly met for the first time on Wednesday 1 July 1998 in Castle Buildings, and since then has met in Parliament Buildings.
The Assembly has elected the Rt Hon David Trimble MP as First Minister (Designate) and Mr Seamus Mallon MP as Deputy First Minister (Designate).
In addition, the Assembly established a "Shadow Assembly Commission" to assist during the transitional period in making preparations for the effecive functioning of the Assembly - the membership and functions of the "Shadow Assembly Commission" being the same as those set out for the Commission in the Northern Ireland Bill.
The Assembly also approved a report by the First Minister (Designate) and Deputy First Minister (Designate) which included the determination on the number of departments and Ministerial offices to be held by Northern Ireland Ministers and further proposals in relation to the North/South Ministerial Council, The British-Irish Council and the consultative Civic Forum.
The Assembly met on 15 July under direction of the then Secretary of State Rt Hon Dr Marjorie Mowlam, MP to run the D'Hondt procedure for the nomination of Ministers to the Executive Committee. However the SDLP and Sinn Fein were the only parties to nominate Ministers and the nominated Ministers could not be appointed as the criteria under Standing Order 22 (15) (i.e that the persons nominated should only continue to hold Ministerial office if they include at least 3 designated Nationalists and 3 designated Unionists) had not been met.
The then Secretary of State, issued a letter to the Initial Presiding Officer revoking her earlier direction for the Assembly to meet. The Initial Presiding Officer therefore adjourned the Assembly until such time as a further direction, was issued by the Secretary of State.
US Senator George Mitchell presided over a review of the process which began on 6 September and concluded on 19 November 1999.
Following this review, the Secretary of State, Peter Mandelson announced on 20 November 1999 that he would be convening a meeting of the Assembly on Monday 29 November 1999 for the purpose of running the D'Hondt procedure for nominating Ministers. Subject to Ministers having been nominated, a Devolution Order would be laid before parliament on 30 November 1999 to take effect on 2 December 1999.
The Assembly met on 29 November 1999 during which 10 Ministers were nominated as well as the Chairpersons, Deputy Chairpersons and members for the 10 Departmental Committees. The necessary legislation passed through Parliament and powers were devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly on 2 December 1999.
When it became apparent in February 2000 that the IRA had not yet handed over any weapons, the assembly was suspended by the British Government in preference to David Trimble's warning that he would resign as First Minister.
The deadlock over the reinstitution of the Assembly was broken when, following an unprecendented statement by the IRA that it would begin a process to put its weapons "completely and verifiably" beyond use, the Ulster Unionist Council voted narrowly in favour of returning to government. The Assembly began again on June 5, 2000.