Assembly first ministers ‘should keep rotating’

The main parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly should provide the First Ministers in rotation, according to a plan drawn up by the Irish Parliament Trust, an independent body set up in 1986 to seek solutions to problems in the North.

In a statement issued today, they say that Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists, the largest single party, should claim the office of First Minister for the first 12 or 18 months with a member of the SDLP as Deputy First Minister.