The next item of business is the filling of the office of Minister of Justice. I will conduct the process for filling the office in accordance with the procedures set out in part 1A of schedule 4A to the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and Standing Order 44A. I will begin by asking for nominations. Any Member may rise and nominate another Member of the Assembly to hold the office of Minister of Justice. If Members rise from more than one party, I will call first the Member from the largest of those parties to make a nomination, in accordance with convention.

I advise Members that the Act requires that one nomination must be processed before a further nomination can be made. I will therefore take only one nomination at a time and put the Question on that nomination. If the Assembly resolves by parallel consent that the Member nominated shall be Minister of Justice and that person takes up office as required by the Act and Standing Orders, no further nominations may be made. I will call for further nominations only if those conditions are not fulfilled.

Having consulted the party Whips, I will allow a Member making a nomination to speak for up to three minutes. Following that, there will be an opportunity for debate on the nomination, with Members also having an opportunity to speak for three minutes. Standing Orders place a time constraint on the nomination process, and I will curtail the debate if necessary, unless, under Standing Order 44A(2), the Assembly approves a request for the time limit to be extended. In any event, if it appears that, before I put the Question, the time limit will be exceeded, I will ask the nominator to repeat the nomination after the debate.

As the person nominated to fill the vacancy shall not take up office until he or she has affirmed the terms of the Pledge of Office contained in schedule 4 to the Northern Ireland Act 1998, after the Question has been determined I will ask the person nominated to affirm the Pledge of Office, which was read into the record during the previous item of business.

Do I have a nomination for a Member to hold the office of the Minister of Justice?

It gives me great pleasure to nominate my party leader and friend, Naomi Long MLA, as Justice Minister.

Members who sat in the last Assembly will have seen the impressive number of Bills she brought through in partnership with the Justice Committee. Each Bill fundamentally changed justice policy and is already impacting positively on people's lives, and we can see improvements in public-sector delivery. Naomi Long still has many more areas of work in the Justice Department and with its delivery partners that she would like to tackle, and I know that she will do that with the same passion and drive as before.

Naomi proved herself to be a hard-working member of the Executive during the last mandate, when her strong sense of collective action shone through, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed our society. She believes in devolution and that the people of Northern Ireland are best served by a locally elected Government who are responsible and responsive to its people. Naomi's long history of public service in the Chamber and in many other political institutions along the way has proven her commitment to delivering a shared society that works for everyone.

I ask the Assembly to support the nomination of Naomi Long and vote for her as the next Justice Minister.

Naomi Long has been nominated. Mrs Long, do you accept the nomination?

I accept the nomination, Mr Speaker.

The nomination is now open for debate. I remind Members that they may speak for up to three minutes.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I congratulate you on your new role.

I support the appointment of Naomi Long to the position of Justice Minister in the Assembly. Sinn Féin is absolutely committed to working with you as Justice Minister, as we have in the past, and with all parties and every section of our community to deliver progressive change in our justice system.

The issues of justice, policing and community safety go right to the core of who we all are as human beings. We all want to feel safe in our homes and communities. We all should have the right to expect that that will be the case. We should have the right to expect that those tasked with administering justice will be there for us, without fear or favour, when that support is needed.

Of course, there are massive challenges ahead, not least the huge budget pressures facing all the Departments, but we are determined to work in partnership with you in addressing those challenges and in delivering the necessary legislative change in the Chamber.

I wish you well in the important role of Justice Minister that begins today.

First, I congratulate Naomi Long on being reappointed as Justice Minister. I do not think that there is anybody in Northern Ireland politics who would doubt the ability of Naomi; indeed, some of us have found to our cost electorally that Mrs Naomi Long is an extremely effective politician. However, I put on record today my party's profound regret that, once again, the post of Justice Minister has been excluded from the d'Hondt process. I said earlier that there was a profoundly historic moment when Michelle O'Neill was elected to be the first nationalist First Minister of this place, and it is something that we should all mark, but there is absolutely no reason why there should not be a nationalist Justice Minister elected. There are qualified Sinn Féin MLAs on the Benches behind me who could do that job. There is no reason why anyone's preference for a united Ireland in the future should prevent them from taking up the post of Justice Minister. I want to make that point.

I also gently say to some of my Alliance colleagues, who had a very good election and who are entitled under a normal d'Hondt process to have two Ministries — of course, in the previous mandate, they had the same number of MLAs as us, and they had the justice Ministry because it was taken out of the d'Hondt process — please, finally, can this be the last time that a nationalist is excluded from holding the post of Justice Minister, because it is utterly indefensible in 2024.

That concludes the debate. Before we proceed to the Question, I remind the Assembly that the Northern Ireland Act 1998 requires that the resolution must be passed by parallel consent.

Question, That Mrs Naomi Long be the Minister of Justice, put and agreed to. Resolved (by parallel consent): That Mrs Naomi Long be the Minister of Justice.

As there are Ayes from all sides of the House and only one No, I am satisfied that parallel consent has been demonstrated.

Members, I now ask Naomi Long to affirm the terms of the Pledge of Office as set out in schedule 4 to the Northern Ireland Act 1998.

I affirm the terms of the Pledge of Office as set out in schedule 4 to the Northern Ireland Act 1998.

I now confirm that Naomi Long, having affirmed the terms of the Pledge of Office, has taken up office as Minister of Justice in accordance with the Northern Ireland Act 1998. I offer her my congratulations.

Let us move on.