New Social Development Committee

agendaNi looks at members of the new Social Development Committee

Alex Maskey MLA
Chair
Party: Sinn Féin
Constituency: South Belfast

A member of the party since the late 1960s, he was elected to the Assembly in 1998 for the West Belfast constituency but was re-elected in 2003 for South Belfast. Maskey has previously served as Deputy Chair of the Assembly and Executive Review Committee. A former Belfast City councillor, Maskey was the first member of Sinn Féin to serve as Belfast’s Mayor. He has also been a member of the Policing Board since 2007. Maskey previously worked as a docker and a part-time barman before entering into politics.

Mickey Brady MLA
Deputy Chair
Party: Sinn Féin
Constituency: Newry and Armagh

Brady was elected to the Assembly in 2007 and is a former member of the Social Development Committee, the Procedures Committee and the Health Social Services and Public Safety Committee. He has campaigned against budget cuts and fuel poverty and on housing issues such as homelessness. A party spokesman on welfare rights and the elderly, Brady has previously worked as a welfare rights officer.

Gregory Campbell MP MLA
Party: DUP
Constituency: East Londonderry

Minister for Regional Development (2001-2002) and Culture, Arts and Leisure (2008-2009), Campbell was elected to the Assembly in 1998. An MP for East Londonderry since 2001, he has also served as a Derry City councillor since 1981. He sat on the Public Accounts Committee and the previous Social Development Committee, before being appointed to the Executive table.

Sammy Douglas MLA
Party: DUP
Constituency: East Belfast

Douglas spent the last 25 years working in loyalist communities and has been involved in reconciliation as a founder member of the Belfast Interface Group. Elected to the Assembly in 2011, he also sits on the board of the East Belfast Partnership and works with the East Belfast Community Development Agency. He is also a former member of the Harland & Wolff Task Force and Laganside Corporation.

Alex Easton MLA
Party: DUP
Constituency: North Down

Elected to the Assembly in 2003, Easton has also served as a North Down councillor since 2001. He is also a former member of the Social Development Committee as well as the Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee. He worked for fourteen years in the health sector and in the Ulster Hospital as a higher clerical officer.

Pam Lewis MLA
Party: DUP
Constituency: South Antrim

A DUP councillor for Antrim Town since 2005 and the first female Mayor of Antrim Borough Council (2010) Lewis was successfully returned for another term in May 2011. Lewis has previously worked in the DUP’s South Antrim constituency office. She has also worked as office manager for Sammy Wilson in the East Antrim office and a member of the DUP Central Executive Committee.

Fra McCann MLA
Party: Sinn Féin
Constituency: West Belfast

A former member of the last Social Development Committee and Regional Development Committee, Fra McCann has also represented Sinn Féin as housing spokesman. Elected to the Assembly in 2003, he has served as a Belfast City councillor since 1997. McCann worked as secretary of the Divis Residents Association, which fought a successful campaign to have the Divis complex demolished.

Michael Copeland MLA
Party: UUP
Constituency: East Belfast

A former MLA in the suspended Assembly (2003-2007), Copeland has also served as a Castlereagh Borough councillor since 2001 and Chairman of Castlereagh District Policing Partnership. He has a keen interest in domestic, socio- economic and housing problems and is a former lieutenant in the Ulster Defence Regiment. Copeland also worked in the construction and allied trades industry as a company and managing director.

Mark H Durkan MLA
Party: SDLP
Constituency: Foyle

Mark H Durkan was elected to the Assembly in 2011, replacing Pól Callaghan. A Derry City councillor since 2005, he previously served as Chairman of the council’s Planning Committee. He is also the party’s spokesman on health and has sat on the Western Health and Social Care Board, the Derry Visitor and Convention Bureau and is involved with several community-based groups.

Judith Cochrane MLA
Party: Alliance
Constituency: East Belfast

A Castlereagh Borough councillor since 2005, Cochrane previously ran Naomi Long and Chris Lyttle’s East Belfast office. She has also worked for the Civil Service, as a management consultant in the private sector and in retail management. Cochrane has also sat on the council’s Finance, Leisure and Technical Services Committees.

David McClarty MLA
Independent
Constituency: East Londonderry

David McClarty became an independent MLA in January 2011 and was re-elected in May. However, he was a UUP MLA from 1998-2011 and a former chief whip for the party. McClarty also sat on the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee and the Environment Committee. Elected to Coleraine Council in 1989, he was also appointed as Mayor of Coleraine (1993-1995).