Education
Queen"s University Belfast.
Queen"s University Belfast.
She was elected in 2007 to the Northern Ireland Assembly as a Democratic Unionist Party (Democratic Unionist Party) member for Strangford. She is the Democratic Unionist Party spokesperson on children and young people. She is also a former councillor on Ards Borough Council, to which she was first elected in 2005.
McIlveen served as the Junior Minister in the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister.
On the 1st of September 2015, Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) minister Danny Kennedy resigned from the Department for Regional Development after his party"s decision to withdraw from the Northern Ireland Executive (because of allegations of the Provisional Ireland Republican Army"s continued existence by Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable George Hamilton). Under Northern Ireland Assembly rules, when a Department Minister resigns, their party has seven working days to replace the minister or the position is given to another party under the Doctorate"Hondt method.
This then fell to the Democratic Unionist Party, who were undertaking a cycle of ministerial resignations/appointments/resignations at the time over the Ireland Republican Army allegations to avoid losing their ministries to other parties like the UUP. The position of Minister for Regional Development lay vacant until the 28th of September. McIlveen was appointed as minister, with Emma Pengelly replacing her as Junior Minister.
3rd Northern Ireland Assembly. 4th Northern Ireland Assembly.