• 11 August 2010

Bible readers: Arlene Foster MLA

It's a tradition that a local personality is asked to give the Bible reading on each evening of the Bishop's Bible Week. This year all our readers are women of note in public life.

Arlene Foster MLA, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment

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Arlene Foster is a fully qualified solicitor from County Fermanagh who joined the Democratic Unionist Party in January 2004.

 

She is the Minister for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) in the NI Executive (a position she has held since June 2008) prior to which she was Minister of the Environment (May 2007).

She is also an MLA for the Fermanagh & South Tyrone constituency.  

Born in 1970, as a child Arlene had first-hand experience of the violence that engulfed Northern Ireland during the Troubles. She was educated at Enniskillen's Collegiate grammar and went on to study law at Queens University, Belfast.

After qualifying, she then worked as a private practice solicitor in Enniskillen and Portadown for 11 years, before devolution was restored to Northern Ireland in 2007.

In February 2008 she was named as the "Parliamentarian/Assembly Member of the Year" at the Women in Public Life Awards which were held in London.

Arlene is a practising Anglican and a parishioner of Colebrooke Parish in Co Fermanagh. She is also a mother of three young children.