ENG: Sir Reginald Norman Morgan "Reg" Empey MLA (born 26 October 1947) is Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for East Belfast. Twice Lord Mayor of Belfast, he was elected the 13th leader of Ulster Unionist Party on 24 June 2005, succeeding former First Minister of Northern Ireland, David Trimble.
Early life
Empey attended Hillcrest Preparatory School, Belfast, and The Royal School, Armagh before graduating with an economics degree from Queen's University of Belfast. After that he built up a business career.
He first entered politics in the late 1960s when he joined the Ulster Young Unionist Council. Along with many other Unionists he left in protest at reforms and became an early member of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party, serving ...
Sir Reg Empey, Minister for Employment and Learning presents Investors in People award to Directors of Abacus at Hillsborough Castle (Sep 07) , positive
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has confirmed Sir Reg Empey is to leave the Assembly.The decision follows his elevation to the House of Lords.The party's former leader, who stepped down after its disastrous general election performance last year, will not contest May's Assembly election.UUP leader Tom Elliott paid tribute to Lord Empey's 25 years as a representative of East Belfast.
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Source: Belfast Telegraph
The executive must be fully involved in any decision to devolve policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland, Sir Reg Empey has told the UUP conference.
Sir Reg told delegates in Belfast that the UUP would reject a "backroom deal" between the DUP and Sinn Fein.
He also warned both parties that any justice deal needed the backing of all NI's main parties to win support.
Sir Reg said his party would oppose any move to appoint an Alliance "puppet" justice minister.
"I want to expose the lie at the heart of the executive - the belief that the DUP and Sinn Fein can go it alone and hope to ...
Published Date: 03 January 2009
ULSTER Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey has accused Peter Robinson of airbrushing out the failings of DUP-Sinn Fein partnership government.The First Minister gave a New Year interview in which he claimed the uneasy coalition with republicans had "defied critics" and was delivering stability, but Sir Reg claimed the DUP leader was looking through rose-tinted glasses."It seems quite clear that Peter Robinson has been given an airbrush for Christmas and has been using it in an effort to remove all trace of the difficulties that have hung over the Executive ...
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All-Party Group on Mental Health and the stigma of mental illness The social stigma and the discrimination local people living with mental health issues can experience was the subject of the All-Party Group on Mental Health this week. The mental health sector, service users and MLAs gathered at Stormont on Tuesday (29 January) for the forum’s first meeting of 2013. The All-Party Group on Mental Health [...]
Eye on the Hill: Preparing for Charity Registration Chief Executive of the Charity Commission of Northern Ireland (CCNI), Frances McCandless outlined plans to begin registration of charities in Northern Ireland at Chambré Public Affairs’ Eye on the Hill conference this week. Ms McCandless took the audience of 100 people, at the headquarters of the Law Society Northern Ireland, through the Commission’s Public Benefit [...]
Copeland Gives “Qualified Welcome” to DSD Scheme to Replace Benefit Cheques Ulster Unionist MLA Michael Copeland has given a qualified welcome to the announcement by the Department for Social Development of new arrangements to pay benefits to people who are unable to have money paid directly into a bank, building society, credit union or Post Office card account. The East Belfast MLA said: “I would give a qualified welcome to these ...