DUP announces ministerial roles

Ian Paisley introduces his ministerial team at Stormont

A former Ulster Unionist will be one of the Democratic Unionists' ministers in a new Stormont government.

DUP leader Ian Paisley has announced that Arlene Foster, who defected from the UUP three years ago, would be Minister for the Environment.

Peter Robinson, DUP deputy leader, will hold the finance portfolio.

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds and Lagan Valley Assembly member Edwin Poots will be the ministers of enterprise and culture respectively.

Speaking outside Stormont on Monday, Mr Paisley said that his son, Ian Junior, was the party's choice for the junior minister role in the Office of First and Deputy First Minister.

Mr Paisley will be sworn in as first minister on 8 May, with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness as deputy first minister.

"I think we should rejoice that great confidence is born in the hearts of the majority of people in Northern Ireland," Mr Paisley said.

"I am amazed by the responses on the streets, on the phone and in every place I visit.

"People who are not Democratic Unionists but who are grateful to us for all that we have achieved."

The DUP leader said Sinn Fein was a different party from the one the DUP faced when it embarked on a process of trying to transform republicanism.

Mrs Foster's uncle through marriage, Sam Foster of the UUP, was also environment minister from 1999 to 2002 when the last power-sharing executive was up and running.