First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland

The **First Minister and the deputy First Minister** (Irish: _Céad-Aire agus an leas-Chéad-Aire_, Ulster Scots: _Heid Männystèr an tha Heid Männystèr depute_), (FM/dFM for short), are jobs in the Northern Ireland Executive. The First Minister is not more important than the deputy First Minister.  The two positions are a diarchy, meaning they have equal power; both are nominated and appointed by members of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Currently, the position is vacant since the resignation of Paul Givan (DUP) as First Minister in February 2022.  Before however, the incumbents were Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist Party as First Minister and Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Féin as deputy First Minister.

## Election

Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly are divided into two groups, Nationalists and Unionists (although there are also some independent or "Other" members).

The First Minister and the deputy First Minister are elected on a joint ticket. Under the St Andrews Agreement, the Leader of the largest party nominates the First Minister, and the leader of the next largest party that is in the other group nominates the deputy First Minister.

Their joint nomination has to obtain an overall majority in the Assembly along with a majority of both designated Nationalist MLAs and designated Unionist MLAs. Designated Other MLAs also vote.

This diarchy was created to enable the leaders of the main unionist and nationalist parties to work together as a team jointly representing both communities.

## "Deputy" becomes "deputy"

The first two holders of the office now known as "deputy First Minister", namely Seamus Mallon and Mark Durkan, were both referred to during their periods of office as "Deputy First Minister", with a capital D. This version was also adopted in 1999 for the logo of the OFMDFM.

Several weeks after Martin McGuinness took up office as Deputy First Minister in 2007, civil servants began asking the Assembly's Hansard team to replace the capital D with a lower-case d, deputy was spelled this way in the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the legislation which created the office.

It was neither Mr McGuinness nor his advisers who asked for the change. The Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, William Hay, ordered the change and the capital D was dropped from Hansard references. The Office of the First and deputy First Minister still uses both versions of Mr McGuinness' title on their website, and their archive of press releases has been changed, but the capital D still appears in some places, and a spokesman confirmed on 20 March 2008 that the office has "no plans" to change the OFMDFM logo. However, the Assembly committee that looks at their work is now listed as the "Committee for the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister". It was decided that Mr McGuinness should be the deputy First Minister, unless all the other letters in the title are in capitals. Confusion is not completely resolved however; if Mr McGuinness writes to the Assembly committee, his note will have a letterhead that comes from the Office of the First Minister and _Deputy_ First Minister, but he'll get a reply back from the Committee for the Office of the First Minister and _deputy_ First Minister.

## First Ministers and deputy First Ministers

- Parties

|colspan=5|First Minister of Northern Ireland|colspan=5|Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland|rowspan=2|Government|rowspan=2|Elections|||||||||||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan=3 style="background:#6CB4EE"|||**David Trimble**|||1 July 1998|1 July 2001|rowspan=2 style="background:#00A550"||rowspan=2|**Seamus Mallon**|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|1 July 1998|rowspan=2|6 November 2001|rowspan=3|First Executive|rowspan=4 style="background:#6CB4EE"|1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election|
|style=background:#EEEEEE|***Reg Empey***|style=background:#EEEEEE||style=background:#EEEEEE|1 July 2001 (acting)|style=background:#EEEEEE|6 November 2001|||||||||||||||
||**David Trimble**|||6 November 2001|14 October 2002|style="background:#00A550"||**Mark Durkan**||6 November 2001|14 October 2002|||||||||||
|colspan=11 rowspan=2 style=background:#EEEEEE|_Offices vacant_|||||||||||||||||||||
|style="background:#D46A4C"|2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election|||||||||||||||||||||
|style="background:#D46A4C"||**Ian Paisley**||8 May 2007|5 June 2008|rowspan=9 style="background:#326760"||rowspan=4|**Martin McGuinness**|rowspan=4||rowspan=4|8 May 2007|rowspan=4|20 September 2011|rowspan=4|Second Executive|rowspan=4 style="background:#D46A4C"|2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election|||
|rowspan=7 style="background:#D46A4C"||rowspan=1|**Peter Robinson**|rowspan=1||5 June 2008|11 January 2010|||||||||||||||
|style=background:#EEEEEE|***Arlene Foster***|style=background:#EEEEEE||style=background:#EEEEEE|11 January 2010 (acting)|style=background:#EEEEEE|3 February 2010|||||||||||||||
|rowspan=3|**Peter Robinson**|rowspan=3||rowspan=3|3 February 2010|rowspan=3|10 September 2015|||||||||||||||
|style=background:#EEEEEE|***John O'Dowd***|style=background:#EEEEEE||style=background:#EEEEEE|20 September 2011 (acting)|style=background:#EEEEEE|31 October 2011|rowspan=4|Third Executive|rowspan=4 style="background:#D46A4C"|2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election|||||||||||
|rowspan=4|**Martin McGuinness**|rowspan=4||rowspan=4|31 October 2011|rowspan=4|9 January 2017|||||||||||||||
|style=background:#EEEEEE|***Arlene Foster***|style=background:#EEEEEE||style=background:#EEEEEE|10 September 2015 (acting)|style=background:#EEEEEE|20 October 2015|||||||||||||||
|rowspan=1|**Peter Robinson**|rowspan=1||20 October 2015|11 January 2016|||||||||||||||||
|style="background:#D46A4C"||**Arlene Foster**||11 January 2016|9 January 2017|Fourth Executive|rowspan=2 style="background:#D46A4C"|2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election||||||||||||||
|colspan=11 rowspan=2 style=background:#EEEEEE|_Offices vacant_|||||||||||||||||||||
|colspan= 2 rowspan=4 style="background:#D46A4C"|2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election|||||||||||||||||||||
|style="background:#D46A4C"||**Arlene Foster**||11 January 2020|14 June 2021|rowspan=2 style="background:#326760"||rowspan=2|**Michelle O'Neill**|rowspan=2||rowspan=1|11 January 2020|rowspan=1|14 June 2021|rowspan=2|Fifth Executive|||||
|style="background:#D46A4C"||**Paul Givan**||17 June 2021|4 February 2022|rowspan=1|17 June 2021|rowspan=1|4 February 2022|||||||||||||
|colspan=11 rowspan=4 style=background:#EEEEEE|_Offices vacant_|||||||||||||||||||||
|colspan= 2 rowspan=2 style="background:#326760"|2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election|||||||||||||||||||||

## Other websites

- OFMDFM

## Infobox (political post)

- **post**: First Minister and deputy First Minister
 <small>_Céad-Aire agus leas-Chéad-Aire_</small>
 <small>_Heid Männystèr an Heid Männystèr depute_</small>
- **imagesize**: 200px
- **incumbent**: _Vacant_
- **incumbentsince**: 4 February 2022
- **appointer**: Northern Ireland Assembly
- **termlength**: instead of commanding the confidence and supply, confidence of the Northern Ireland Assembly
- **inaugural**: David Trimble and Seamus Mallon
- **formation**: 2 December 1999
- **salary**: £120,000 each (inc. Member of the Legislative Assembly#Northern Ireland, MLA pay)
- **website**: [http://www.ofmdfmni.gov.uk Website]