The New Beginning: Reconstructing Constitutional Law and Democracy in Northern Ireland
by Colin Harvey
From: Human Rights, Equality and Democratic Renewal in Northern Ireland edited by Colin Harvey
Hart Publishing 2001
Ministers and Departments
There are eleven Departments.1 The number of Departments, the Implementation Bodies and the Matters for Co-operation were agreed on 18 December 1998. It is for the FM-DFM to determine the number of Ministerial Offices and the functions to be exercised by the office holders.2 The Ministers are allocated according to the d'Hondt formula. The Agreement states that all Ministers should liaise regularly with their Committee.3 The power of Ministers is limited in similar ways to the general restrictions on legislative competence.4 A Minister does not have the power to do any act which "aids or incites another person to discriminate against a person or class of person on that ground".5 As a condition of appointment all Ministers are required to affirm a Pledge of Office.6 This Pledge of Office includes the obligation:
"(c) to serve all the people of Northern Ireland equally, and to act in accordance with the general obligations on government to promote equality and prevent discrimination."7
There is, in addition to this, a Ministerial Code of Conduct.8 This includes an obligation to "operate in a way conducive to promoting good community relations and equality of treatment".9 Ministers have full executive authority in their respective areas but this is authority within the programme of government agreed by the Executive Committee and endorsed by the Assembly as a whole.10 There is a mechanism for the removal of a Minister from Office:
"if (s)he loses the confidence of the Assembly, voting on a cross-community basis, for failure to meet his or her responsibilities including, inter alia, those set out in the Pledge of Office."11
Exclusion is the most extreme form of sanction. Nevertheless it is an option and there is provision for the exclusion of Ministers or junior Ministers for twelve months.12 A Minister could be excluded for a failure to observe terms of her or his Pledge of Office, thus giving the Pledge added significance.13 The Assembly has the power to extend a period of exclusion or to bring it to an end.14
1 Northern Ireland Act 1998 ss. 17-18; The Departments (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 SI No. 283. The Departments are: Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister; Agriculture and Rural Development; Culture, Arts and Leisure; Education; Enterprise, Trade and Investment; Environment; Finance and Personnel; Health, Social Services and Public Safety; Higher and Further Education, Training and Development; Regional Development; Social Development.
2 Northern Ireland Act 1998 s. 17(1).
3 Stand One para. 22.
4 Northern Ireland Act 1998 s. 24.
5 Northern Ireland Act 1998 s. 24 (1)(d).
6 Strand One para. 23 and Annex A.
7 Annex A. See Northern Ireland Act 1998 s. 18(8): "A Northern Ireland Minister shall not take up office until he has affirmed the terms of the pledge of office."
8 Annex A.
9 Ibid.
10 Strand One para. 24.
11 Strand One para. 25.
12 Northern Ireland Act 1998 s. 30(1).
13 It is not only Ministers who can be excluded. Provision is made for the exclusion of a political party because: "it is not committed to non-violence and exclusively peaceful and democratic means...or...because it is not committed to such of its members as are or might become Ministers or junior Ministers observing the other terms of the pledge of office".
14 Northern Ireland Act 1998 s. 30 (3) and (4).
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