Robert Mervyn Storey (born 4 September 1964), usually known as Mervyn Storey, is a

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...

(DUP) politician, serving as a Causeway Coast and Glens Councillor for the

Ballymoney Ballymoney ( , meaning 'townland of the moor') is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area. The civil parish of Ballymoney is situated ...

DEA since 2022. Storey previously served in the

Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive (Irish language, Irish: ''Feidhmeannas Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster Scots: ''Norlin Airlan Executive'') is the devolution, devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branc ...

, where he was Minister for Social Development from 2014 to 2016, and then Minister for Finance between January and March 2016. He was a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nation ...

(MLA) for North Antrim from

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Biography

Robert Mervyn Storey was born in

Armoy, County Antrim Armoy ( ) is a village and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is 5.5 miles (9 km) southwest of Ballycastle and 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Ballymoney. According to an estimate in 2013 by the Northern Irel ...

on 4 September 1964. His father Nat was a founder member of the

Protestant Unionist Party The Protestant Unionist Party (PUP)Not to be confused with the Progressive Unionist Party. was a unionist political party operating in Northern Ireland from 1966 to 1971. It was the forerunner of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and emerged ...

and an election worker for

Ian Paisley Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and ...

. Storey was educated at Armoy Primary School and at Ballymoney High School. On leaving school in 1980 he worked in a bacon factory, rising to production manager. In 2000 he left the company and joined Ian Paisley's constituency office in Ballymena.

Family

Storey is married to Christine and has three children.

Political activity

Storey is a former member of the Fire Authority for Northern Ireland. Storey was elected to

council in 2001 and again in 2005. He is a member of the Ballymoney Local Strategy Partnership and Regional Partnership for Northern Ireland. In 2000 he served as campaign manager for William McCrea's by-election for South Antrim and also in 2001 for Gregory Campbell and Ian Paisley's elections in East Londonderry and North Antrim respectively. All three campaigns were successful. Storey was elected to the

Northern Ireland Assembly The Northern Ireland Assembly (; ), often referred to by the metonym ''Stormont'', is the devolved unicameral legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliam ...

in the 2003 elections. From 2008 to 2014 he was chairman of the Northern Ireland Assembly

Committee for Education The Committee for Education is a Northern Ireland Assembly committee established to advise, assist and scrutinise the work of the Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsibl ...

. He lost his Assembly seat in the election held on 5 May 2022, thus ceasing to be an MLA. From September 2014 to January 2016 Storey was Minister for Social Development. He resigned from this post several times during September and October 2015 in the context of a political crisis. In January 2016 Storey was appointed Minister for Finance & Personnel. As a

young earth creationist Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between about 10,000 and 6,000 years ago, contradicting established ...

, and a member of the "Council of Reference" of the creationist Caleb Foundation, he petitioned the then Northern Irish education minister, Caitríona Ruane, to have

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins".#Numbers 2006, Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for it ...

taught in schools in Northern Ireland, as well as objecting to an exhibition on evolution in the

Ulster Museum The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures ...

and signs at the Giants Causeway in his North Antrim constituency.Belfast museum faces legal battle over Charles Darwin exhibition

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, 12 February 2009, retrieved 20 May 2009

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Storey, Mervyn 1964 births Living people Ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive (since 1999) Democratic Unionist Party MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007 Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Politicians from County Antrim Presbyterians from Northern Ireland Christian Young Earth creationists Ministers of finance and personnel of Northern Ireland People from Armoy