Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Michelle O'Neill has announced new appointments and re-appointments to the Drainage Council.

The independent advisory body oversees the programme of publicly funded flood defence and drainage projects in the Northern Ireland.

The Council is made up of ten district councillors, a drainage specialist, representatives from conservation, fisheries, agriculture, industry, tourism and DOE Planning NI, and the Chief Executive of the Rivers Agency. Members are appointed for a four year term and appointments are made in accordance with the principles of the Commissioner for Public Appointments NI.

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The following appointments and reappointments will take effect from 15 March 2012 and run until the end of the new term of Drainage Council for NI in 2015.

The new appointees are: Cllr Brian Hanvey, Castlereagh Borough Council; Cllr Connaire McGreevy, Newry and Mourne District Council; Cllr Willis Robinson, Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council; Cllr Bernice Swift, Fermanagh District Council; Cllr Roy Thompson, Antrim Borough Council; Cllr Olive Mercer, Banbridge District Council; Andrew Wilson, Ulster Farmers Union County Fermanagh Chairman; Brendan Kerr, Chairman of Ballycastle Angling Club and Bernie Lafferty, Environmental Scientist.

Reappointed to the Drainage Council are: Alderman Roy Beggs, Larne Borough Council; Cllr Sean Clarke, Cookstown District Council; Cllr William King MBE, Coleraine Borough Council; Councillor Allan Rainey MBE, Omagh District Council; Ms Rosemary Dobbin, Director of Reconstructing the Future Ltd; Dr Harold Johnston, Queen’s University, Belfast; and Trevor Hinds, a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

(CD/GK)