Structure and operation
On 16 February 1999, the new Northern Ireland Assembly approved a report presented by the FM (Designate) and dFM (Designate) on the 15 February 1999 which provided that the Civic Forum should consist of a chairman and 60 members representing ten sectors, namely Voluntary/Community, Business, Trade Union, Churches, Arts & Sports, Culture, Agriculture & Fisheries, Community Relations, Education and Victims. The First Minister and the deputy First Minister were also each responsible for three personal nominations.
The Forum met in plenary format 12 times between 9 October 2000 and 14 October 2002 when devolution was suspended. The Forum also set up standing committees and working groups to carry forward the bulk of its work programme.
Mission and Function of the Civic Forum
The Civic Forum adopted, as its mission, that "The Civic Forum will exercise effective community leadership and directly influence the building of a peaceful, prosperous, just, cohesive, healthy and plural society."
The Forum saw its role as providing a mechansism for particiaptive democracy in Northern Ireland with scope to impact upon the formulation of Government policy and to engage in research in areas where it felt Government policy should eb focused to a greater degree.
Suspension
Suspension of the devolved institutions in October 2002 meant that:
- the arrangements for obtaining the Forum’s views on social, economic and cultural matters which had been made by the FM and dFM and approved by the Assembly, could not now be implemented; and
- there was no longer a legal power for OFMDFM to defray the Forum’s expenses.
Thus, while the Forum was not suspended, it was effectively unable to operate in the absence of the devolved institutions.
