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Paul Maskey

Paul Maskey
MP
Official portrait, 2015
Member of Parliament
for Belfast West
Incumbent
Assumed office
10 June 2011
Preceded byGerry Adams
Majority15,961 (40.2%)
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Belfast West
In office
7 March 2007 – 2 July 2012
Preceded byMichael Ferguson
Succeeded byRosie McCorley
Personal details
Born
Paul John Maskey

(1967-06-10) 10 June 1967 (age 57)[1]
NationalityIrish
Political partySinn Féin
RelationsAlex Maskey (brother)[2]

Paul John Maskey (born 10 June 1967)[1] is a Sinn Féin politician in Northern Ireland who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Belfast West since 2011. He served as a Sinn Féin member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast West from 2007 to 2012. In line with Sinn Féin's policy of abstentionism, he has not taken his seat in the House of Commons.

Belfast City Council

At the local elections of 7 June 2001, Maskey was elected as a Sinn Féin councillor for the Upper Falls electoral area on Belfast City Council, topping the poll on first preferences.[3] He became chairman of the Belfast Waterfront Hall Board, helping to guide the venue to be ranked as the best congress centre in the UK and the fifth best in the World at the final of the Apex Award 2004 – World's Best Congress Centre awards, organised by the International Association of Congress Centres.[4]

He was also chairman of the Client Services committee of Belfast City Council.[5] But in January 2005, he could not win committee or council support for a proposal costing £175,000 to convert the minor hall used by the Group Theatre at the Ulster Hall into dual-purpose performance space during the refurbishment of the Hall.[6] From 2005 he was leader of the Sinn Féin group on the City Council.[7] Maskey resigned his seat on 14 September 2009.[8]

Tourism

Maskey has been employed by Fáilte Feirste Thiar ('Welcome to West Belfast'), an agency promoting tourism into that part of the city. As development co-ordinator in 2004 he helped launch an initiative under which 120 local businesses agreed to accept the euro, to help encourage visitors from across the border and elsewhere in the Eurozone.[9]

In December 2005, as chair of the West Belfast Partnership, he linked up with Shankill Tourism to set up an Arts and Heritage trail which included both the Shankill Road and Falls Road areas.[10]

He welcomed publication of a tourist map of Belfast in 2006 which included a Gaeltacht Quarter in west Belfast,[11] and in 2008 the group published a map and guide to all gable end murals in the west of Belfast.[12]

Northern Ireland Assembly

Maskey was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the 2007 elections as part of a Sinn Féin team which won five out of the six seats in Belfast West. After a Public Accounts Committee report criticised the waste of money on a project to build a campus of the University of Ulster on one of the peace lines at Springvale in north Belfast, Maskey placed the blame on the SDLP Minister Carmel Hanna.[13] He became chairman of the committee in May 2008.[14] In July 2009, he supported a committee investigation into the £33 million paid annually in legal fees and compensation to people claiming for tripping on pavements.[15]

Under Maskey's chairmanship the committee held a detailed scrutiny of Northern Ireland Water in 2010, after it awarded 70 contracts without competition. Maskey denounced the situation as "absolutely staggering" and said that he could not remember "a more serious case of complete disregard for public sector ethics."[16] The committee held a meeting to question officers of NI Water which took three and a half hours; Maskey joked at the end that the officers would need an "articulated lorry" to send all the information requested by MLAs.[17]

When Maskey organised a protest against a parade by Royal Irish Regiment soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan in October 2008, he explained that he wanted "a peaceful, dignified protest" against the wars, but that he did want to see British forces returning without injury.[18] In December 2010, Maskey criticised other political parties in Northern Ireland for seeking to keep the details of people who funded them confidential; he said that "justifiable public cynicism is generated when it is perceived that political parties are not being open about their financial affairs."[19] He was re-elected in 2011, topping the poll with 5,343 first preference votes. He was again named as Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee in the new mandate.[20]

Parliamentary career

At the 2011 Belfast West by-election, Maskey was elected to Parliament as MP for Belfast West with 70.6% of the vote and a majority of 13,123.[2][21] He was re-elected as MP for Belfast West at the 2015 general election with a decreased vote share of 54.2% and a decreased majority of 12,365.[22][23][24] Maskey was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election, with an increased vote share of 66.7% and an increased majority of 21,652.[25][26] He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 53.8% and a decreased majority of 14,672.[27] Maskey was again re-elected at the 2024 general election, with a decreased vote share of 52.9% and an increased majority of 15,961.[28]

References

  1. ^ a b "AIM Portal: Mr Paul Maskey". Northern Ireland Assembly. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  2. ^ a b Young, Connla (11 June 2011). "New Sinn Féin MP Paul Maskey vows to reach out to loyalists". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  3. ^ "Belfast City Council Elections 1993–2005". Northern Ireland Elections. Archived from the original on 26 July 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  4. ^ "Waterfront Hall voted UK's best conference centre", Irish Independent, 20 October 2004.
  5. ^ "Group Theatre faces tense wait over final call", Newsletter, 1 December 2004,
  6. ^ "Council votes to close group theatre", Belfast Telegraph, 6 January 2005.
  7. ^ Andrea Clements, "DUP gets Lord Mayor position", Belfast Telegraph, 27 May 2005.
  8. ^ "Councillor Paul Maskey". Belfast City Council. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  9. ^ Laurence White, "West Belfast signs up to eurozone scheme", Belfast Telegraph, 17 May 2005.
  10. ^ "Two famous roads come together for tourism", Newsletter, 14 December 2005.
  11. ^ Margaret Canning, "Belfast gets a 'Gaeltacht' quarter", Irish Times, 11 September 2006.
  12. ^ "Local murals are put on the map", Belfast Telegraph, 31 July 2008.
  13. ^ Dan Keenan, "Empey defends actions on failed Belfast university plan", Irish Times, 12 October 2007.
  14. ^ "Public Accounts Committee: membership". Northern Ireland Assembly. 14 September 2010. Archived from the original on 24 April 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  15. ^ David Gordon, "Probe into our £33m tripping bill", Belfast Telegraph, 8 July 2009.
  16. ^ Gordon, David (2 July 2010). "Northern Ireland Water fiasco: four face censure". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  17. ^ Gordon, David (2 July 2010). "Northern Ireland Water: Questions the committee still needs answered". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  18. ^ Victoria O'Hara, "SF plans protest against RIR Afghan homecoming parade", Belfast Telegraph", 17 October 2008.
  19. ^ David Gordon, "Parties fight to keep their backers secret", Belfast Telegraph, 7 December 2010.
  20. ^ "Public Accounts Committee Membership – 2011 mandate". Northern Ireland Assembly. Archived from the original on 24 April 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  21. ^ Sinn Fein's Paul Maskey wins West Belfast by-election Archived 13 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 10 June 2011
  22. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  23. ^ "The Electoral Office of Northern Ireland - EONI". www.eoni.org.uk. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  24. ^ "UK ELECTION RESULTS: BELFAST WEST 2015". Archived from the original on 14 June 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  25. ^ "Election of a Member of Parliament for the BELFAST WEST Constituency - Statement of Persons Nominated and Notice of Poll". Electoral Office of Northern Ireland. 11 May 2017. Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  26. ^ "UK Parliamentary Election Result 2017 - Belfast West". Archived from the original on 13 June 2017. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  27. ^ "Belfast West Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Archived from the original on 30 November 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  28. ^ "Belfast West - General election results 2024". BBC News. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
Northern Ireland Assembly
Preceded by MLA for Belfast West
2007–2012 		Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Belfast West
2011–present 		Incumbent
Retrieved from "https://en.Wik.ipedia.Pro.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Maskey&oldid=1237150326"

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