West Belfast Sinn Féin Assembly member Jennifer McCann has been appointed a Junior Minister in the Northern Executive, succeeding Martina Anderson, who today takes up her post as the new Sinn Féin MEP for Northern Ireland.
Ms McCann, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the early 1980s for the attempted murder of an RUC officer, in the face of some unionist criticism of her appointment said she had a mandate to serve as an Assembly member and Junior Minister.