Alliance Party leader takes Justice Minister role

Alliance Party leader David Ford was selected as the North’s new Justice Minister today after policing and justice powers were devolved from Westminster to the Stormont Assembly.

The powers were transferred at midnight and were followed minutes later by a bomb attack launched by the dissident republican Real IRA on MI5’s Northern Ireland headquarters at Palace Barracks in Holywood, Co Down. One man was injured.

But politicians proceeded with today’s planned vote at the Assembly and selected Mr Ford as a compromise cross-community candidate for the new role after separate unionist and nationalist candidates were voted down.

Mr Ford takes on the role of Justice Minister after the deal brokered between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin at Hillsborough Castle in February paved the way for the devolution move.

The Alliance leader welcomed his election in the Assembly today, which came with the support of the two major parties, saying: “This is, I believe, a significant day for Northern Ireland.

“It is a step forward in the peace process, in the political process, and in ensuring that the institutions which have been in place since 1998 are firmly affixed and are playing their part in serving the needs for the people of Northern Ireland.”

He said the Palace Barracks bomb attack underlined the need for politicians to work together.