Edwin Poots

Edwin Poots MLA
Minister of the Environment
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2009
Preceded by	Sammy Wilson
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Lagan Valley
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 June 1998
Preceded by	New Creation
Personal details
Born	1965 (age 46–47)
Political party	Democratic Unionist Party
Religion	Protestant
Website	DUP

Alderman Edwin Poots MLA (b. 1965) is a Northern Irish politician and a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Lagan Valley. He is one of three DUP MLAs for Lagan Valley.

Biography

Poots was born in 1965 and was educated at the Wallace High School, Lisburn, and then Greenmount Agricultural College. He is married with four children. He is a farmer and serves on Lisburn City Council. His father, Charles Poots was also a DUP politician, having stood in the 1969 Northern Ireland General Election for the Protestant Unionist Party.

Poots was a member of the Environment Committee and chaired the Committee of the Centre (i.e. Committee for the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers) in the 1998-2003 Assembly. On 8 May 2007, he was appointed Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure in the Northern Ireland Executive, a post he held until 9 June 2008, when a cabinet re-shuffle saw this post being reassigned to Gregory Campbell. It has been speculated that he was removed as Minister of Culture due to his support of the Maze stadium proposals. He was subsequently made Deputy Mayor of Lisburn on 23 June

On 1 July 2009, Poots was returned to the Government as Minister of the Environment, in charge of the Department of the Environment. In May 2011, he was appointed as Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.

Poots is a young earth creationist and denies biological evolution. In the same interview, when asked by William Crawley, how old the Earth was, he replied "My view on the earth is that it's a young earth. My view is 4000 BC"

References

Northern Ireland Assembly
Preceded by Office suspended	MLA for Lagan Valley 1998 -	Succeeded by Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Office suspended	Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure 2007 - 2008	Succeeded by Gregory Campbell
Preceded by Sammy Wilson	Minister of the Environment 2009 - 2011	Succeeded by Alex Attwood
Preceded by Michael McGimpsey	Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety 2011 -	Succeeded by Incumbent