Daithí McKay

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Cllr Daithí McKay MLA
Daithí McKay
Incumbent
Assumed office 
2007
Preceded by Philip McGuigan
Constituency North Antrim
Political party Sinn Féin
Website [1] Sinn Féin]

Daithí McKay is an MLA for North Antrim and a Councillor in Ballymoney Borough Council. He was born in Ballymena in 1982, and resides in Rasharkin, County Antrim. He attended St Patrick's Primary School in Rasharkin and St. Louis' Grammar School in Ballymena. Before becoming a Full-time worker for Sinn Féin he lived in Belfast where he worked for the Ulster Bank.

He was elected in Bann Valley in 2005. Daithí was an adviser to Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan and is currently the youngest member of the Ballymoney Borough Council ([2]).

In 2007, it was announced that McKay would contest McGuigan's North Antrim seat in the Northern Ireland Legislature on 7 March 2007 ([3]). He went on to claim his seat after the first count, coming second in the poll behind Ian Paisley of the DUP. It was the closest anyone has ever come to beating Ian Paisley in an election in over 35 years. He is the youngest MLA in the Assembly.

Since then he has become one of the first Sinn Féin members to sit on the Policing Board along with Martina Anderson and Alex Maskey.

In September 2007 McKay sparked off a political scandal in the Assembly when he named private developer Seymour Sweeney as a member of the DUP in the Assembly Chamber. The DUP's Environment Minister, Arlene Foster, had said that she was 'minded' to approve an application from Mr Sweeney for a private Visitors Centre at the Giant's Causeway even though her Planning Service officials had recommended that it be refused. Mrs Foster threatened to take Mr McKay to court over the matter but in January 2008 she decided to refuse the private application, a move that was welcomed by Mr McKay.

[edit] Committees

  • Health & Environmental Services Committee, Lignite Committee
  • Rasharkin Community Association
  • Policing Board
  • NILGA Executive Committee
  • Chairperson of the NILGA E-Government Committee