CARMEL HANNA MLA (SDLP)

Born in Warrenpoint in 1946, Carmel Hanna was educated at Our Lady's Grammar School, Newry, Co Down. She is married to Eamon and has four children.  She is a certified midwife, former nurse and NHS worker assessing care for the elderly. A former Deputy Chair of the 1998-2003 Assembly's Environment Committee and a member of the Health Committee.  Hanna replaced Dr Sean Farren as Minister of Employment and Learning in December 2001.  Carmel is the SDLP Party Spokesperson for Health and Public Safety.  She has been an MLA for Belfast South since 1998 and was comfortably re-elected alongside Alasdair McDonnell MP in 2007. Hanna chairs the Committee on Standards and Privilieges and is a member of the Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee and the Assembly and Executive Review Committee in the Assembly.
 

ANNA LO MLA (ALL)

Anna Lo made history by becoming the first person from an ethnic minority to be elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007.  She is also the first Chinese person to be elected as a lawmaker anywhere in Europe. Lo was born in Hong Kong and moved to Northern Ireland in 1974.  She qualified as a social worker from the University of Ulster and later spent many years working in health and social services.  She was a founder member of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities and was on the first Equality Commission for Northern Ireland established under the Northern Ireland Act of 1998.  The mother of two is a former Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Chinese Welfare Association. In the Assembly she is a member of the Committee for Employment and Learning and the Social Development Committee. She is also Party Spokesperson for Employment and Learning and Social Development.

ALEX MASKEY MLA (SF)

Alex Maskey was born in 1951 and was educated at St Malachy's College and Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education. He is married and is a former dockworker. Maskey was twice interned without trial at the start of the Troubles. In 1987 he survived being shot at close range by loyalist paramilitaries and also escaped a UFF murder bid at his home seven years later.  A member of Belfast City Council since 1983, he was elected as the first Sinn Féin Mayor of Belfast in June 2002 and the first Sinn Féin MLA for South Belfast in November 2003.  During the 1998-2003 Assembly he served as the party's Chief Whip.  In 2006, he participated in the negotiations resulting in the ETA truce announced on 22 March. Maskey is a former Party Spokesperson on issues relating to the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister and after re-election to the Assembly in 2007 he was made Party Spokesperson on Policing. Alex leads the Sinn Féin team on the Policing Board and as part of a party reshuffle in May 2008 he became a member of the Assembly and Executive Review Committee in the Assembly.

Dr ALASDAIR McDONNELL MP MLA (SDLP)

Alasdair McDonnell was born in September 1949 in Cushendall, County Antrim. He is married with three children.  McDonnell was educated at St. McNissi's College, Garron Tower and went on to study medicine at University College, Dublin. He became a family doctor at the Inner City Group Practice at Ormeau Health Centre in 1979, but reduced his role to part time in 1999.  He was a member of Belfast City Council between 1977 and 2001. He was elected SDLP Deputy Leader in February 2004 and MP for South Belfast in May 2005.  He was then successfully re-elected to the Assembly in 2007.  McDonnell is SDLP Party Spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade and Investment and sits on the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee in the Assembly. 

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MICHAEL McGIMPSEY MLA (UUP)

Michael McGimpsey was born in July 1948 in Donaghadee, County Down. He was educated at Regent House Grammar School, and then Trinity College, Dublin. He is married with two children.  He joined the UUP in 1964. He was elected to represent the Laganbank ward on Belfast City Council in 1993, and became an MLA for Belfast South in 1998. His interests include youth provision, urban regeneration and health.  He was Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure in the 1998-2003 Executive. In 2007 McGimpsey was re-elected to the Assembly for his Belfast South constituency, but had to wait until the tenth count. McGimpsey is Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety in the Assembly.

JIMMY SPRATT MLA (DUP)

Jimmy Spratt, former Police Federation chairman, is a councillor on Castlereagh Borough Council. He is a member of the Local Strategy Partnership, District Policing Partnership, Northern Ireland Local Government Association, Castlereagh Sports Advisory Committee, South Eastern Education & Library Board, Belvoir Activity Centre and Lough Moss Leisure Centre.  Spratt was elected to the Assembly in March 2007, where he topped the poll in the Belfast South constituency. Spratt was made Chair of the Assembly and Executive Review Committee in March 2008 when Jeffrey Donaldson MP MLA left to become Junior Minister in OFMDFM. Along with this post, Spratt retains his place as Deputy Chair of the Employment and Learning Committee and has a seat on the OFMDFM Committee. He is also Party Spokesperson on Employment and Learning issues.