The Fourth Executive was, under the terms of the

Northern Ireland Act 1998 __NOTOC__ The Northern Ireland Act 1998 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed Westminster to devolve power to Northern Ireland, after decades of direct rule. It renamed the New Northern Ireland Assembly, established by ...

, a power-sharing coalition. Following the 6 May 2016 elections to the fifth Northern Ireland Assembly, the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by J ...

and

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...

remained the two largest parties in the

Assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

. Notably for the first time in the assembly's history, parties entitled to seats on the executive could instead opt to go into formal opposition. The UUP, SDLP and Alliance all took up this option, leaving the DUP and Sinn Féin to form a government. The 4th Northern Ireland Executive was formed on 25 May 2016. It lasted less than a year, and collapsed on 16 January 2017 following the resignation of deputy First Minister McGuinness in protest at the

Renewable Heat Incentive scandal The Renewable Heat Incentive scandal (RHI scandal), also referred to as RHIgate and the Cash for Ash scandal, is a political scandal in Northern Ireland that centres on a failed renewable energy (wood pellet burning) incentive scheme that has be ...

4th Executive of Northern Ireland

References

{{Governments of Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Executive Northern Ireland, Executive of the Northern Ireland Assembly 5th Ministries of the Northern Ireland Assembly 2016 establishments in Northern Ireland Cabinets established in 2016 2017 disestablishments in Northern Ireland Cabinets disestablished in 2017 Ministries of Elizabeth II

4th Executive of Northern Ireland

See also

References