O'Dowd to replace McGuinness as deputy first minister

Stormont Education Minister John O'Dowd is to be nominated as temporary deputy first minister on Monday.It follows confirmation that Martin McGuinness will be Sinn Fein's candidate in next month's Irish presidential electionIn line with current rules, Mr O'Dowd's nomination does not require cross-party support.It is a matter solely for Sinn Fein as the second largest party in the Assembly.Mr McGuinness will step down as deputy first minister during the campaign to succeed Belfast-born Mary McAleese as Irish president.He said, if elected, he would only take "an average wage" and that the rest of his salary would go back to the public purse.He added: "A number of people in the north who lost loved ones as a result of the actions of the IRA have actually come to me and pledged their support in this campaign."That gives me tremendous encouragement because I think they see me as someone who has been at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement, the negotiations that brought about the St Andrews Agreement, the Hillsborough Agreement, and the building of very important relationships with our unionist brothers and sisters."Mr McGuinness said he expected his past as an IRA commander to be brought up during the course of the election campaign."I have promoted peace everywhere that I have gone but I know there will be a very strong temptation for people to drag us back to the past."God knows there are enough of them trying to do so, in a violent sense, at the moment," he said."But I am of the here and now and I am someone who is very focused on the future."Ulster Unionist party leader Tom Elliott said it was a matter for people in the Irish Republic who they elected, but that it would help if Mr McGuinness disclosed some of his activities with the IRA."I think it would be extremely useful if he were to sit down and talk of his overall involvement," he said."Of how he was a commander in the IRA, what those actions enabled him to do, what some of the actions were that he did take and an acceptance that their campaign was wrong."DUP MP Ian Paisley said: "If our politicians who are problem politicians decide to export themselves to the south of Ireland then that's probably not a bad thing."It clears the way for new blood to enter real politics in Northern Ireland."It's been a lot of the baggage that people like Martin McGuinness have carried with them to the political scene that has caused difficulties."Mr McGuinness has secured the necessary support of independent members of the Irish parliament for his nomination.They are Finian McGrath, Luke Flanagan, Michael Healy-Rae and Tom Fleming.Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell, Special Olympics boss Mary Davis, businessman Sean Gallagher and Labour's Michael D Higgins of Labour, have already put their names forward. From / BBC