Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee
agendaNi profiles the members of Stormont’s main economic committee.
Alban Maginness
Chair
Party: SDLP Constituency: Belfast North
Alban Maginness is SDLP spokesman on justice and chair of the party’s Assembly group. Maginness is also a member of the Assembly’s Justice Committee, Procedures Committee and Treasurer of the All-Party Group on Co-operatives and Mutuals. He was a member of Belfast City Council from 1985 until 2010, and in 1997 became the first nationalist to be elected Lord Mayor of Belfast. Maginness has been an MLA since 1998. He was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1976 and the Bar of Ireland in 1984. Maginness ran in the 2009 European Parliament elections.
Daithí McKay
Deputy Chair
Party: Sinn Féin Constituency: North Antrim
Daithí McKay is the Sinn Féin education spokesman in the Assembly. He was elected to the Assembly in 2007 and is also a member of the Assembly’s Education Committee. He was a member of Ballymoney Borough Council from 2005 to 2011. McKay became a constituency worker for the Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan after McGuigan was elected to the Assembly in 2003. A former employee of Ulster Bank, he has been involved in aid work in the Palestinian West Bank and Central America. He is the founder and current Chair of the Assembly All-Party Group on Climate Change.
Steven Agnew
Party: Green
Constituency: North Down
Steven Agnew is the only Green MLA in the Assembly and the Green Party’s leader in Northern Ireland. He was first elected to the Assembly in 2011 and also serves on the Standards and Privileges Committee. Before working as a research officer for Brian Wilson in the last Assembly, Agnew spent five years as a support worker with homeless people, firstly in Belfast and then Lisburn. He ran unsuccessfully in the 2009 European Parliament elections and the 2010 UK general election.
Alasdair McDonnell
Party: SDLP
Constituency: South Belfast
Alasdair McDonnell is both an MLA and MP for South Belfast. Deputy leader of the SDLP from 2004-2010, he is the party’s spokesman on enterprise, trade and investment, and is Chair of the All-Party Group on Energy and Vice-Chair of the All-Party USA Group. He is a member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee in the House of Commons. McDonnell was a Belfast City councillor from 1977-2001. McDonnell is a GP by profession.
Mike Nesbitt
Party: UUP
Constituency: Strangford
Mike Nesbitt became an MLA in 2011 and is the Ulster Unionist spokesman on enterprise, trade and investment. Nesbitt is also on the Regional Development Committee and the Assembly and Executive Review Committee. Previously he worked as a broadcast journalist with both the BBC and the UTV, where he was best known as a presenter of UTV Live. He also worked as a Managing Director of Anderson Kenny Public Relations, and was one of four commissioners for victims and survivors from 2008-2010.
Gordon Dunne
Party: DUP
Constituency: North Down
Gordon Dunne is a DUP MLA and member of North Down Borough Council. Dunne was first elected to the Assembly this year and is also a member of the Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee. He represents North Down Borough Council on Down Rural Area Partnership and is a former member of the Northern Ireland Housing Council. First elected as a councillor in 1985, he is a former Mayor of the borough. His professional background is in the Civil Service.
David McIlveen
Party: DUP
Constituency: North Antrim
David McIlveen is the new DUP MLA for North Antrim, first elected this year. He is also a member of the Employment and Learning Committee and the Standards and Privileges Committee. McIlveen owns an estate agency and is a member of the Ballymena Chamber of Commerce, the Institute of Business Consultants and the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM). McIlveen is a son of the Free Presbyterian minister Rev David McIlveen.
Robin Newton
Party: DUP
Constituency: East Belfast
Robin Newton has been an MLA for East Belfast since 2003. He is the Treasurer of the All-Party Group on Ethnic Minority Communities. From June 2009 to May 2011 he was a Junior Minister at OFMDFM. Newton is also a member of the Policing Board. He is a member of Belfast City Council, having first been elected in 1985. A former international athlete, Newton was also Chief Executive of Newton Management Consultants.
Phil Flanagan
Party: Sinn Féin
Constituency: Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Phil Flanagan has been a Sinn Féin MLA since May 2011 and is Sinn Féin spokesman on enterprise. Flanagan is also on the Assembly’s Education Committee. He has been a member of Fermanagh District Council since 2009, when he was co-opted. He was elected to the council in 2011. A former retail manager and small business owner, Flanagan is on Fermanagh District Council’s development, policy and resources, and planning committees.
Stephen Moutray
Party: DUP
Constituency: Upper Bann
Stephen Moutray has been a DUP MLA since 2003, and a member of Craigavon Borough Council since 2001. Currently he is Chair of the Assembly and Executive Review Committee and serves on the Regional Development Committee and the All-Party Group on Co-operatives and Mutuals, the All-Party Group on Cancer, the All- Party Group on Funerals and Bereavements and the All-Party Group on International Development. Moutray is a former Chair of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.
Sue Ramsey
Party: Sinn Féin
Constituency: West Belfast
Sue Ramsey was first elected to the Assembly in 1998 and is Sinn Féin spokeswoman on the social economy. Ramsey is chair of the Assembly’s Procedures Committee, is Treasurer of the All- Party Group on Sexual Health and serves on the All-Party Group on Children and Young People, the All-Party Group on Disability and the All-Party USA Group. She lost her seat in 2003 but was co-opted in 2004 to replace Bairbre de Brún. Ramsey was Chair of the Employment and Learning Committee during the last Assembly.
