West Belfast Sinn Féin Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Paul Butler MLA

Paul Butler is the Sinn Fein MLA for the Lagan Valley constituency and is the leader of the Sinn Fein group on Lisburn City Council.

He is well known for battling discrimination against nationalists in the Lisburn council area.

He has been an active republican for over 35 years and was a political prisoner in Long Kesh for 16 years after being arrested in 1973.

Paul has been a councillor on Lisburn Council since 1997 and is a member of Lisburn Council's Leisure, Planning, and Strategic Policy Committees.

He is a former member of the Lisburn Partnership Board, which administers European peace money throughout Lisburn and was a member of the South Eastern Education and Library Board from 2001 to 2005.

He was also the vice-Chair of the Long Kesh / Maze Regeneration Panel, which was set up to oversee the regeneration of the former prison.

He was elected as MLA for Lagan Valley in the assembly election of March 2007. He sits on the assembly's Employment and Learning Committee and the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee.

Paul Butler is Sinn Fein's representative on the Assembly Commission, which is responsible for the running of the assembly and Stormont buildings.

He has stood in the assembly elections of November 2003 and June 1998 for Sinn Fein in Lagan Valley, and also stood for the party in the last Westminster elections in May 2005.

Paul Butler has campaigned to make Lisburn into a new inclusive city for all and is known across Lagan Valley due to his tireless campaigning on behalf of local people.