Former Education Minister Lord Peter Weir has been appointed to the board of the Education Authority.
Lord Weir will be replacing the DUP’s political representative Mervyn Storey, following his appointment as the chairperson of the EA Board, a role he took up on January 1 this year.
Mr Storey’s successful application for the chairperson’s role had left seven political representatives on the EA Board, with political parties sharing the seats and with the DUP permitted to nominate a replacement.
Political members are not ministerial appointments and are nominated by their respective political parties in accordance with Article 3, Schedule 1 of the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.
Lord Weir is a former member of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
He served as Education Minister from January 2020 until June 2021, before being replaced by Michelle McIlveen MLA, and was previously chairperson of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Education Committee.
As part of the appointment he has declared that, during the past five years, he has undertaken political activity on behalf of the DUP.
He is a member of the House of Lords for which he receives an attendance allowance when participating in proceedings.
The Board of the EA comprises a chairperson appointed by the minister and 20 members who are nominated by a range of interests.
There are 12 members representing the trustees of maintained schools, transferors of controlled schools, Irish-medium schools, integrated schools, voluntary grammar schools and controlled grammar schools, alongside eight political members who are nominated by the relevant political parties.
Other political appointment to the current EA Board are Stephen Donnelly (Alliance), Rachael Ferguson (Alliance), David Jonathan Craig (DUP), Paul Kavanagh (Sinn Fein), Frank Charles Maskey (Sinn Fein), Ms Angie Mervyn (Sinn Fein) and Dr Samuel John Kyle (UUP).
Since Lord Weir took over as Education Minister from Sinn Fein’s John O’Dowd, the DUP has retained the position in the NI Executive.
There was criticism over the appointment of Mr Storey to the position as chairperson, the appointment made by DUP Education Minister Paul Givan.
Sinn Fein’s Pat Sheehan MLA, deputy chair of Stormont’s Education Committee, said Storey’s “previous role as a DUP minister, MLA, and current DUP councillor raises obvious questions for the minister about the appointment”.
Mr Storey’s position as chairperson remains unaffected by the DUP appointment of Lord Weir.