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The Northern Ireland Executive as established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 is the (currently suspended) executive body for Northern Ireland , answerable to the Northern Ireland Assembly . It consists of a First Minister and Deputy First Minister and various ministers with individual portfolios and remits. The Assembly elects the First Minister and Executive. The Executive officially took power on December 2 , 1999 , but was suspended on various occasions, the last effective from October 15 , 2002 , as the Ulster Unionist Party walked out after a high-profile Police Service Of Northern Ireland investigation into an alleged IRA spy ring. No convictions resulted. While it is suspended, the functions it exercised have reverted to the Secretary Of State For Northern Ireland . The seats were allocated in a power-sharing formula known as the D'Hondt System and were proportional to the number of members in the Assembly. In effect the Executive is a coalition between the four major parties including, the Ulster Unionist Party , Social Democratic And Labour Party , Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party . The Assembly uses the D'Hondt Method for allocating the ministerial positions in the Executive. An unforeseen consequence of the safeguards built into the Belfast Agreement was that if either of the two largest parties refused to take part, the executive could not function. A previous Northern Ireland Executive existed briefly in the 1970s as an attempt to restore devolution to Northern Ireland in a similar power-sharing agreement. See Sunningdale Agreement . NORTHERN IRELAND EXECUTIVE 1998-2002 First Minister of Northern Ireland
Deputy-First Minister of Northern Ireland
Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Investment
Minister for Finance & Personnel
Minister for Regional Development
Minister for Education
Minister for the Environment
Minister for Employment & Learning
Minister for Social Development
Minister for Culture, Arts & Leisure
Minister for Health, Social Services & Public Safety
Minister for Agriculture & Rural Development
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