# Northern Ireland Act 1998, Paragraph 3: Tenure of members


(1) Subject to the provisions of this Schedule, a person holds office as a member in accordance with the terms of the person’s appointment.
(2) A person may not be appointed as a member for more than five years at a time, or more than twice.
(3) A person may resign as a member by notice in writing to the First Minister and deputy First Minister.
(4) The First Minister and deputy First Minister acting jointly may dismiss a person from office as a member by notice in writing if satisfied that the person—
(a) has without reasonable excuse failed to discharge the functions of the office for a continuous period of three months beginning not earlier than six months before the day of dismissal;
(b) has been convicted of a criminal offence;
(c) has become bankrupt or the subject of a bankruptcy restrictions order, a debt relief order or a debt relief restrictions order, or has made a voluntary arrangement;
(d) is unable or unfit to carry out the functions of the office of a member.
(5) Each of the expressions used in sub-paragraph (4)(c) has the same meaning as in the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (S.I. 1989/2405 (N.I. 19).

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/47/schedule/9A/paragraph/3 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-act-1998/schedule-9A/paragraph-3
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.