Paul Givan
Paul Jonathan Givan (born 12 October 1981) is a Northern Irish unionist politician who served as First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2021 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), he has served as Minister of Education since 3 February 2024.[1] Givan has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Lagan Valley since 2010.
Not to be confused with Paul Girvan, MP for South Antrim.
Paul Givan
Michelle McIlveen (2022)
Michelle O'Neill (2024)
Deirdre Hargey (2020)
Paul Frew (2017)
British
Emma Givan
3
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 the Northern Ireland Protocol.[4][5] From 2016 to 2017, Givan served as the Minister for Communities in the Northern Ireland Executive under First Minister Arlene Foster.
Givan has been associated with socially conservative views and has been described as being on the Paisleyite right wing of the DUP.[6]
Background[edit]
Givan was educated at Laurelhill Community College, where he studied Business and History, and is a graduate of the University of Ulster, where he obtained a degree in Business Studies and completed an Advanced Diploma in Management Practice. He was first elected to Lisburn City Council in 2005.[7] His father, Alan Givan, was a prison officer with the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) who later became a DUP councillor in Lisburn.[8]
Givan was born and raised in Lisburn.[8] However, he is partially of County Monaghan descent, one section of his family having come from Ballybay in County Monaghan. Shortly after the Partition of Ireland in the early 1920s, this section of his family moved north from County Monaghan to County Tyrone.[9] It was near Dungannon 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]
Minister of Education (2024–present)[edit]
Givan was appointed Minister of Education following the formation of the Executive of the 7th Northern Ireland Assembly on 3 February 2024. He had previously been tipped for the role of deputy First Minister.
Following his appointment, on 8 February 2024, Givan set out his key priorities for education after visiting Rathmore 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]
Political views[edit]
In 2007, Givan made comments that characterised him as a creationist and was responsible for a motion calling for schools in Lisburn to teach creationist alternatives to evolution.[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 to abortion in Northern Ireland.[31]
Givan supported Edwin Poots' successful bid to become leader of the Democratic Unionist Party in May 2021, alongside Mervyn Storey and Paul Frew.[32]
Controversies[edit]
Prostitution hearing (2014)[edit]
In 2014, a formal complaint was made by a sex 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]
Freedom of Conscience Amendment Bill (2015)[edit]
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] The Northern 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, the Supreme 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]
Irish language scheme (2016)[edit]
In December 2016, Givan cut funding for the Líofa scheme, which enabled people to go to the Donegal Gaeltacht to learn Irish. This decision prompted Gerry Adams to label him as an "ignoramus",[38] and Martin McGuinness described the removal of the Bursary Scheme as "the straw that broke the camel's back" in his resignation speech from the role of deputy 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]