Arlene Foster

Arlene Foster
First Minister of Northern Ireland
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 January 2016 Acting: 11 January 2010 – 3 February 2010 Acting: 10 September 2015 – 20 October 2015 Serving with Martin McGuinness
Preceded by	Peter Robinson
Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 December 2015
Deputy	Nigel Dodds
Preceded by	Peter Robinson
Minister for Finance and Personnel
In office 11 May 2015 – 12 January 2016
First Minister	Peter Robinson
Preceded by	Simon Hamilton
Succeeded by	Mervyn Storey
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment
In office 9 June 2008 – 11 May 2015
First Minister	Peter Robinson
Deputy First Minister	Martin McGuinness
Preceded by	Nigel Dodds
Succeeded by	Jonathan Bell
Minister for the Environment
In office 8 May 2007 – 9 June 2008
First Minister	Ian Paisley
deputy First Minister	Martin McGuinness
Preceded by	Dermot Nesbitt
Succeeded by	Sammy Wilson
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 November 2003
Preceded by	Joan Carson
Personal details
Born	Arlene Isabel Kelly 3 July 1970 Dernawilt, Northern Ireland
Political party	Ulster Unionist (Before 2003) Independent (2003–2004) Democratic Unionist (2004–present)
Spouse(s)	Brian Foster
Children	Sarah George Ben
Alma mater	Queen's University Belfast
Religion	Anglicanism
Website	Party profile Official website

Arlene Isabel Foster (née Kelly, born 3 July 1970) is a Northern Ireland politician who has been the First Minister of Northern Ireland since January 2016 and the Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party since December 2015, the first woman to hold either post.

She has also been the Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Fermanagh and South Tyrone since 2003. She previously served in the Northern Ireland Executive as Minister of the Environment from 2007–08, Minister for Enterprise and Investment from 2008–2015 and Minister for Finance and Personnel from 2015–16.

Background

Foster was raised in the townland of Dernawilt, between Lisnaskea and Rosslea in County Fermanagh. Her experience with the Troubles began early in her life when a night-time attempt was made to kill her father, a Royal Ulster Constabulary reservist, at their home.^[1] As a teenager Foster was on a school bus that was bombed by the IRA, the vehicle targeted because its driver was a soldier in the Ulster Defence Regiment.^[2] (She was a pupil at Enniskillen Collegiate Grammar School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh from 1982 to 1989.)

She was educated at Queen's University, Belfast where she graduated with an LL.B. degree.^[3] It was at Queen's University where her political career began after joining the Queen's Unionist Association, part of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).^[4] She served as the association's chairman from 1992 to 1993.^[5] After leaving Queen's University she remained active in the UUP, chairing its youth wing, the Ulster Young Unionist Council, in 1995.^[5] In 1996, she became an Honorary Secretary of the UUP's ruling body, the Ulster Unionist Council, a position which she held until her resignation from the UUP on 18 December 2003.^[5]

Assembly career

She was elected as an Ulster Unionist in the 2003 Assembly elections. While a member of the UUP, she was part of a "rightwing cabal within the UUP known as the 'baby barristers'." They actively opposed party leader David Trimble, and were a "thorn in [his] side" after he supported the Belfast Agreement.^[6] In 2004, Foster resigned from the UUP and joined the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), together with fellow Assembly members Jeffrey Donaldson and Norah Beare. She was selected as the DUP's candidate for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the United Kingdom general election, 2005. Negotiations took place between the local branches of the DUP and UUP with the aim of finding an agreed unionist candidate. The negotiations broke down with neither party willing to accept the electoral dominance of the other; the UUP claiming Foster's defection to the DUP disguised the reality of the UUP's electoral strength, whilst the DUP pointed to the change in the unionist political landscape following the 2003 Assembly election and 2004 European Parliament election. The UUP candidate was Tom Elliott. Foster finished second in the 2005 general election with 14,056 votes.

On 11 January 2010, she assumed the duties of the First Minister of Northern Ireland, as Peter Robinson stepped aside for a planned period of up to six weeks. Foster worked along with the deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.^[7] Robinson returned earlier than planned, on 3 February 2010.^[8]

In March 2014 Foster became embroiled in controversy after demanding an apology for what she described as "deeply insulting language" in a comment made by fellow MLA, Anna Lo of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. Lo had described herself as "anti-colonial" and said the partition of Ireland was "artificial".^[9] Foster herself was challenged over the fact that she had chosen to speak out so robustly on the matter, after remaining silent about arguably much more controversial comments made the previous day by another unionist politician, Progressive Unionist Party leader, Billy Hutchinson. Hutchinson had said in a newspaper interview that he had "no regrets" over his random sectarian murder of two Catholics on their way to work in 1974.^[10][11]

Minister for the Environment

In September 2007, a privately financed proposal for a new Giant's Causeway centre was given preliminary approval by Foster in her role as the new Northern Ireland Environment Minister.^[12] Immediately afterwards, the public money that had been allocated to the Causeway development was frozen. The proposal resulted in a public row about the relationship between the private developer Seymour Sweeney and the DUP; Sweeney was a member of the DUP, although both parties denied that he had ever given to the party financially.^[13] On 29 January 2008, Foster announced that she had now decided against Sweeney's proposal for a new visitors' centre, reversing her earlier position of "being minded" to approve it.^[14] Although the public funds for a Causeway scheme remained frozen for the time being, it seemed highly likely that the publicly funded plan for the Causeway would now go ahead after all.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment

As the minister responsible for energy policy, in June 2012 Foster attacked the Co-operative Group over the showing of a documentary opposing fracking, saying, "I find your claim that you take "ethics to the next level" hard to reconcile with your demonstrable support for a film which presents a wholly one-sided and partial approach to the debate about hydraulic fracturing."^[15]

Personal life

Foster is married to Brian and has three children.^[16]

Foster was a Councillor on Fermanagh District Council representing Enniskillen ward from 2005 until 2010.

In 2008, she was recognised as Assembly member of the year at the Women in Public Life Awards.^[17]

See also

• Demography and politics of Northern Ireland

References and notes

1. Arlene Foster – Profile BBC News, 11 January 2010
2. December 17, 2015 22:08 GMT. "From bombs to the ballot box: New DUP leader Arlene Foster symbolises the Province's newfound hopes". Ibtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
3. Biography – Arlene Foster Northern Ireland Assembly
4. Arlene Foster's unlikely path to Northern Ireland's top job Daily Telegraph, 12 January 2010
5. Political Biography – Arlene Foster Democratic Unionist Party
6. McDonald, Henry (11 January 2010). "Robinson saga: Profile of Arlene Foster". The Guardian (London: The Guardian). Retrieved 13 June 2012.
7. Peter Robinson steps aside as NI first minister BBC News, 11 January 2010
8. Robinson back as Northern Ireland first minister BBC News, 4 February 2010
9. "Anna Lo: 'United Ireland' remarks 'insulting', say unionists". BBC News. 20 March 2014.
10. "What Anna said". Jude Collins. 2014-03-21. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
11. McBride, Sam (19 March 2014). "My murder of two Catholics helped prevent united Ireland – PUP leader Billy Hutchinson". Newsletter.
12. Developer set to get Causeway nod BBC News, 10 September 2007
13. Developer's DUP link 'no bearing' BBC News, 11 September 2007
14. Gordon, David (29 January 2008). "Foster ditches Sweeney centre". The Belfast Telegraph. pp. 1–2.
15. Magee, Kevin (14 June 2012). "Arlene Foster criticises Co-operative Group over fracking film". BBC News (BBC News). Retrieved 24 August 2012.
16. A privilege to serve says Arlene The Impartial Reporter, 14 January 2010
17. "Arlene Foster, MLA Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment". DETI. DETI. Retrieved 13 June 2012.

External links

• Official website