Sinn Fein announce new minister for infrastructure in front bench reshuffle after election of Conor Murphy to Ireland’s Seanad

Party leader Mary Lou McDonald announced the shake-up of ministers in the powersharing Executive which will also see Newry and Armagh MLA Liz Kimmins become the new minister for infrastructure.

Ms Archibald will leave her role as finance minister to replace Mr Murphy as economy minister.

Infrastructure minister John O’Dowd will be moved to finance with Ms Kimmins replacing him in the infrastructure role.

Ms Kimmins formerly chaired the health committee. That role will now be taken on by MLA Philip McGuigan.

Veteran minister Mr Murphy stood down after he was elected to the Seanad, the Irish parliament’s upper chamber, in the early hours of Monday morning.

During a visit to Stormont on Monday, Ms McDonald said: “We are very pleased and very confident in the team that will now, a year on, continue with the very important work in the Executive and with the wider Assembly team. And, of course, as part of an all-Ireland team.

“We reshuffled our front bench down in Dublin last week, so we now have virtually all of the posts filled.

“Team Sinn Fein is now ready to get up and go at it again.”

The Sinn Fein leader was asked about the reason for moving Ms Archibald from the finance portfolio, where she had led negotiations with the Treasury over increased funding for the region amid budget pressures within Stormont departments.

Ms McDonald said: “I think she has done an outstanding job in that portfolio and she will be outstanding in the ministry of the economy.

“If you talk to people outside of politics they would all agree that Caoimhe Archibald is a very appropriate and capable person to take on this brief.

“John O’Dowd will take up in the finance brief where Caoimhe left off.

“There is a big negotiation to be had.

“This is an all of Executive and all-party effort because this place is under-funded, the British Government has recognised that, so there has to be an ongoing effort, ongoing pressure on the Treasury to correct that.”

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill said she believed the reshuffle would re-energise the Sinn Fein team.

She said: “I think it shows a vote of confidence in the team that we have. We have very clear plans across all of our three departments.

“We now have an opportunity with Conor moving on to the Seanad that we have an opportunity to promote another minister to come forward and I am delighted that Liz Kimmins is stepping forward into that role.”

‘Difficult to leave’

Mr Murphy is leaving his job as Stormont economy minister and Newry and Armagh Assembly member to switch to the upper house of the Irish parliament.

The republican veteran secured his Seanad seat close to 1am on Monday morning after a lengthy count at the home of the Oireachtas parliament at Leinster House in Dublin.

Reflecting on his move south, Mr Murphy made clear his job would be to advance the debate on Irish unification and bring a “northern perspective” to the conversation around planning for constitutional change.

He said he also would lean on his ministerial experience to focus on issues around creating and maintaining all-island economic links.

The former MP, who led Sinn Fein’s negotiating team in many political talks north of the border, secured one of nine seats on the Seanad’s industrial and commercial vocation panel.

The electorate for what was one of five vocational panels in the Seanad poll was made up of TDs, outgoing senators and sitting councillors in the Republic of Ireland.

“I’m delighted to be a northern voice in the Seanad,” he told the PA news agency at Leinster House.

“I think there are northern voices needed there to give that all-Ireland perspective. So I am very much looking forward to the challenge.”

Mr Murphy acknowledged it was “difficult to leave” his ministerial job at Stormont.

“The Department for the Economy is a great department, and I very much value the work that we’ve done there, but I think we have put the department on the right trajectory, we’ve set the priorities for it,” he said.

“So it really would be a matter of whoever replaces me following through on that work and implementing what we’ve put in place.”