Paul Givan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Givan in 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of Education | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 3 February 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Michelle McIlveen (2022) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of the Legislative Assembly forLagan Valley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 14 June 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jeffrey Donaldson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Member of Lisburn City Council | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 5 May 2005 – 22 May 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | William Lewis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Council abolished | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Constituency | Lisburn Town North | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Paul Jonathan Givan (1981-10-12)12 October 1981 (age 44) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Democratic Unionist Party | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Emma Givan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Ulster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Official website | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Paul Jonathan Givan (born 12 October 1981) is a Northern Irish unionist politician who served asFirst Minister of Northern Ireland from 2021 to 2022. A member of theDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP), he has served asMinister of Education since 3 February 2024.[1] Givan has been aMember of the Legislative Assembly forLagan Valley since 2010.
Givan became First Minister on 17 June 2021, becoming the youngest person to hold that office.[2][3][4] He resigned on 4 February 2022 as part of DUP protests against theNorthern Ireland Protocol.[4][5] From 2016 to 2017, Givan served as theMinister for Communities in theNorthern Ireland Executive under First MinisterArlene Foster.
Givan has been associated withsocially conservative views and has been described as being on thePaisleyiteright wing of the DUP.[6]
Givan was educated at Laurelhill Community College, where he studied Business and History, and is a graduate of theUniversity of Ulster, where he obtained a degree in Business Studies and completed an Advanced Diploma in Management Practice. He was first elected toLisburn City Council in 2005.[7] His father, Alan Givan, was a prison officer with theNorthern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) who later became a DUP councillor inLisburn.[8]
Givan was born and raised in Lisburn.[8] However, he is partially ofCounty Monaghan descent, one section of his family having come fromBallybay in County Monaghan. Shortly after thePartition of Ireland in the early 1920s, this section of his family moved north from County Monaghan toCounty Tyrone.[9] It was nearDungannon in South Tyrone that his paternal grandfather, Herbie Givan, was born and raised. Herbie later became one of the foundational members of the DUP.[8][10]
According to a 2014 article in theBelfast Telegraph, Givan's "first experience of 'real politics' came when he was 18", at which time he was part-time assistant in the constituency and Stormont offices of Edwin Poots.[11] He was later to work as a special adviser when Poots wasMinister of Culture, Arts and Leisure between 2007 and 2008, and then again between 2009 and 2010 when he wasMinister of the Environment. Givan has stated that his interest in the DUP resulted from listening to Ian Paisley – at a rally against theGood Friday Agreement inKilkeel.[12][11] "He captured me emotionally for the DUP and Peter Robinson's and Nigel Dodds' forensic analysis of the failing of the Agreement captured me intellectually", he said.[11]
Givan was first co-opted to theNorthern Ireland Assembly in 2010, replacingJeffrey Donaldson.[13]
In May 2016, Givan was appointedMinister for Communities.[14] As sports minister in November 2016, he visited aGAA club in Lisburn to award a grant and played Gaelic football with some child players of the club.[15]
In May 2021, there was speculation that Givan, having worked forEdwin Poots previously, might be nominated to becomeFirst Minister of Northern Ireland after Pootswas elected DUP leader.[16] On 8 June 2021, Poots introduced Givan as "Northern Ireland's first minister designate".[17] At age 39,[2] Givan was the youngest First Minister in Northern Ireland's history.[4]
On 17 June 2021, a letter from the DUP party chairman and other senior party members asked Poots to delay Givan's nomination as First Minister to oppose the British government's decision to introduceIrish language legislation in the Westminster Parliament.[2] However, Poots nominated Givan as First Minister andSinn Féin re-nominatedMichelle O'Neill as deputy First Minister, restoring theNorthern Ireland Executive.[2] Prior to this nomination DUP officials objected to Givan being nominated for the role. As such, within hours of his being sworn in as First Minister, Givan's DUP colleagues convened a party meeting to oust Poots as the leader of the party. Poots resigned shortly after,[18] triggeringanother leadership contest.[19]
On 19 June it was reported Givan would be required to resign as First Minister once the next DUP leader had been chosen.[20] However, in July, theIrish News said Givan was expected to remain in his position until "later this year" after the new DUP leaderJeffrey Donaldson said in aUTV interview that he intended to resign his seat as a Westminster MP and become First Minister before the planned2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, but also said that he did not yet know precisely how he would bring this about.[21]
On 3 February 2022, Givan announced his resignation as First Minister, as part of DUP protests against the Northern Ireland Protocol.[5] He became Northern Ireland's shortest serving First Minister, having spent 231 days in office.[22] Givan retained his seat as an MLA for Lagan Valley in the2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election.[23]
Givan was appointedMinister of Education following theformation of theExecutive of the 7th Northern Ireland Assembly on 3 February 2024. He had previously been tipped for the role ofdeputy First Minister.
Following his appointment, on 8 February 2024, Givan set out his key priorities for education after visitingRathmore Grammar School. He said he has "ambitious plans to invest in our schools’ estate..."[24] He said he wanted the "gap to close" between wages for school staff in Northern Ireland and their counterparts in Great Britain.[25] On 12 February 2024, in his first Ministerial statement in the assembly, he set out plans for capital investment across the education sector.[26] Givan subsequently announced that new build projects for seven schools across Northern Ireland would progress in planning.[27]
In 2007, Givan made comments that characterised him as acreationist and was responsible for a motion calling for schools in Lisburn to teach creationist alternatives toevolution.[28][29] The motion was passed by Lisburn City Council and asked all post-primary schools in the area what plans they had to "develop teaching material in relation to creation, intelligent design and other theories of origin".[30] He is also opposed toabortion in Northern Ireland.[31]
Givan supportedEdwin Poots' successful bid to becomeleader of the Democratic Unionist Party inMay 2021, alongsideMervyn Storey andPaul Frew.[32]
In 2014, a formal complaint was made by asex worker,Laura Lee, over Givan's treatment of her after she had been invited to appear at a hearing to discuss proposed changes to prostitution legislation in Northern Ireland. He had asked her how much she charged, and said she was exploiting disabled people by not giving them discounts.[33]
In February 2015, Givan proposed a Northern Ireland Freedom of Conscience Amendment Bill, after controversy and legal action arose when Ashers Baking Company, a business owned by a religious family, refused to bake and decorate a cake with a message supportive of same-sex marriage.[34] This motion led to a petition against the bill, which received 100,000 signatures in 48 hours.[35] TheNorthern Ireland Human Rights Commission subsequently published an advisory noting that the "underlying premise" of the proposed bill (that "freedom to manifest one’s religion is undermined by the protection of individuals from discrimination") was unfounded, and that the Northern Ireland Assembly could not enact laws incompatible with existing conventions on human rights.[36] In October 2018, theSupreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled that the refusal of service had not been discriminatory as it related to the customer's choice of order and not the customer's sexual orientation.[37]
In December 2016, Givan cut funding for theLíofa scheme, which enabled people to go to the DonegalGaeltacht to learnIrish. This decision promptedGerry Adams to label him as an "ignoramus",[38] andMartin McGuinness described the removal of the Bursary Scheme as "the straw that broke the camel's back" in his resignation speech from the role ofdeputy First Minister of Northern Ireland leading to a political crisis in the Stormont Executive.[39] Givan later tweeted that the "decision on the Líofa Bursary Scheme was not a political decision. I have now identified the necessary funding to advance this scheme."[40]
Paul Givan is set to remain as First Minister for the summer when Sir Jeffrey Donaldson announces changes later within his party at the Stormont Assembly. Sir Jeffrey intends to stand down from his Westminster seat in Lagan Valley and take a place at Stormont. In a UTV interview on Monday evening, he said he hoped to do so "later this year" and take up the position of first minister before the next assembly election. However, he said he did not know yet exactly how he would make this happen.
Mr Givan [is] a creationist who has in the past supported the teaching of alternatives to evolution in schools
| Northern Ireland Assembly | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | MLA forLagan Valley 2010–present | Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister for Communities 2016–2017 | Vacant Title next held by Deirdre Hargey |
| Preceded by | First Minister of Northern Ireland 2021–2022 | Vacant Title next held by Michelle O'Neill |
| Vacant Title last held by Michelle McIlveen | Minister of Education 2024–present | Incumbent |
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