23 Facts About Paul Givan

Paul Jonathan Givan was born on 12 October 1981 and is a Northern Irish unionist politician who served as First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2021 to 2022.

Paul Givan became First Minister on 17 June 2021, becoming the youngest person to hold that office.

Paul Givan resigned on 4 February 2022 as part of DUP protests against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

From 2016 to 2017, Paul Givan served as the Minister for Communities in the Northern Ireland Executive under First Minister Arlene Foster.

Paul Givan has been associated with socially conservative views and has been described as being on the Paisleyite right wing of the DUP.

Paul Givan was educated at Laurelhill Community College, where he studied Business and History, and is a graduate of the University of Ulster, where he obtained a degree in Business Studies and completed an Advanced Diploma in Management Practice.

Paul Givan was first elected to Lisburn City Council in 2005.

Paul Givan's father, Alan Givan, was a prison officer with the Northern Ireland Prison Service who later became a DUP councillor in Lisburn.

Paul Givan was later to work as a special adviser when Poots was Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure between 2007 and 2008, and then again between 2009 and 2010 when he was Minister of the Environment.

Paul Givan was first co-opted to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2010, replacing Jeffrey Donaldson.

In May 2021, there was speculation that Paul Givan, having worked for Edwin Poots previously, might be nominated to become First Minister of Northern Ireland after Poots was elected DUP leader.

At age 39, Paul Givan was the youngest First Minister in Northern Ireland's history.

However, in July, the Irish News said Paul Givan was expected to remain in his position until "later this year" after the new DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said in a UTV interview that he intended to resign his seat as a Westminster MP and become First Minister before the planned 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, but said that he did not yet know precisely how he would bring this about.

On 3 February 2022, Paul Givan announced his resignation as First Minister, as part of DUP protests against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Paul Givan became Northern Ireland's shortest serving First Minister, having spent 231 days in office.

Paul Givan retained his seat as an MLA for Lagan Valley in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election.

Paul Givan was appointed Minister of Education following the formation of the Executive of the 7th Northern Ireland Assembly on 3 February 2024.

Paul Givan had previously been tipped for the role of deputy First Minister.

Paul Givan subsequently announced that new build projects for seven schools across Northern Ireland would progress in planning.

In 2007, Paul Givan made comments that characterised him as a creationist and was responsible for a motion calling for schools in Lisburn to teach creationist alternatives to evolution.

Paul Givan had asked her how much she charged, and said she was exploiting disabled people by not giving them discounts.

In February 2015, Paul Givan proposed a Northern Ireland Freedom of Conscience Amendment Bill, after controversy and legal action arose when Ashers Baking Company, a business owned by a religious family, refused to bake and decorate a cake with a message supportive of same-sex marriage.

In December 2016, Paul Givan cut funding for the Liofa scheme, which enabled people to go to the Donegal Gaeltacht to learn Irish.