Dr Sean Farren is Northern Ireland’s new finance minister.
Mr Farren replaces Mr Mark Durkan who left the post to succeed Mr John Hume as SDLP leader and Mr Seamus Mallon as deputy First Minister. In a mini-reshuffle, the South Belfast MLA Ms Carmel Hanna has succeeded Dr Farren as Employment and Learning Minister. Ms Hanna is a registered nurse and midwife and member of Belfast City Council.
Dr Farren was member of the New Ireland Forum in 1983 to 1984 and a member of the SDLP Delegation to the Brooke Talks in 1992. He was one of the SDLP’s chief negotiators at the inter-party talks that led to the Belfast Agreement.
Elected to Northern Ireland Assembly in June 1998, he became the Minister for Further & Higher Education, Training & Employment in the Northern Ireland Executive in November 1999. He had been a senior lecturer in Education at the University of Ulster at Coleraine.