NI power-sharing: As Stormont ministers leave, how did they do?

Stormont's departments no longer have ministers, not even in a caretaker capacity.

The ministers who were in post when the assembly collapsed with the resignation of Paul Givan as first minister remained in their departments.

After May's election, they returned for the duration of the 24 weeks given to parties to reform the Northern Ireland Executive.

That time has now passed and the day-to-day running of Stormont's departments will pass to civil servants.

However during that period. without a first and deputy first minister, ministers could not make decisions which were seen to be cross-cutting, or needing the support of the executive as a whole.

BBC News NI's editors and correspondents look back at their time at the helm.

Finance - Conor Murphy

Within weeks of coming into office, Conor Murphy had to respond to the economic impacts of the pandemic - a response that included the rates collection body, LPS, being repurposed to make grants to businesses.

Mr Murphy got a one-year budget through the assembly in March 2020 but his plan for a three-year budget covering 2022-25 was thwarted.

The DUP did not agree to all the proposals in his draft budget and the issues had not been resolved by the time the executive collapsed in February 2022.

A legacy of Mr Murphy's time in office is the creation of an independent budget watchdog, the Fiscal Council.

Economy - Gordon Lyons

Perhaps the most consequential moment of Mr Lyons short tenure was the launch of an ambitious new energy strategy which commits to making substantial progress towards net zero by 2030.

It will fall to his successor to deliver the detailed policy and legislation that the strategy requires.

The response to the energy price crisis has been largely the responsibility of Whitehall's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, partially because of the lack of an executive.

This meant Mr Lyons's supporting role was mainly about reassuring households and businesses that help was coming.

His most eye-catching announcement was the launch of the £100 high street voucher scheme, a pandemic recovery measure originally devised under his predecessor Diane Dodds.

Infrastructure - John O'Dowd

John O'Dowd only became the minister in May, after the SDLP decided not to retain the post when its deputy leader Nichola Mallon lost her seat in the assembly election that month.

During her tenure in office, she faced issues with backlogs in the driving test and MoT systems and warned that her department's shrinking budget could mean tough spending decisions for public transport operator Translink and NI Water.

Arguably her most significant decision, taken just before the executive collapsed, was to refuse planning permission for a controversial waste incinerator in Mallusk.

Days before leaving office, Mr O'Dowd announced he was keeping public transport fares frozen for another 12 months due to the cost-of-living crisis - one of the few areas where he has power in the absence of an executive.

His successor will be tasked with deciding when to begin work on long-delayed road projects like the A5.

Communities - Deirdre Hargey

Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey was responsible for benefits and pensions, recipients of which have been hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis and soaring inflation.

This support was also particularly important during the pandemic when a £20 uplift in universal credit was introduced to help low-income families - that uplift came to an end in 2021.

Experts from the Resolution Foundation said the end of the uplift hit Northern Ireland harder than the rest of the UK as there are about 136,000 people here on universal credit.

Support was also given to the arts sector during the pandemic, which Ms Hargey said has been "disproportionately impacted".

Earlier this year, Ms Hargey introduced a £55m scheme to give one-off payments of £200 to 280,000 people in Northern Ireland to help with energy costs.

She also piloted a piece of legislation through the assembly to close some gaps in Stormont's welfare reform mitigations, which were originally introduced in 2016.

Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs - Edwin Poots

In his time as Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs minister, Edwin Poots also went through cancer surgery and - briefly - found himself DUP party leader.

He introduced the new Future Agricultural Policy, described as the biggest shake-up in agriculture for 50 years as it changed how farmers got paid.

And he suspended Irish Sea border checks at Northern Ireland's ports. That led to legal action which is still ongoing.

His tenure will most likely be remembered for winning the two-bill race that led to the passing of Northern Ireland's first climate change legislation.

Mr Poots' bill was amended to set a net-zero target of 2050 with a 46% limit to the required reduction in methane, primarily produced by agriculture.

Farmers argue that move fulfilled his January 2020 pledge to protect the environment while enhancing the economically significant agri-food sector, even as the UK's Climate Change Committee said it "significantly inhibited" Northern Ireland's ability to reach net zero.

Education - Michelle McIlveen

Michelle McIlveen inherited a school system emerging from the shock of pandemic restrictions and facing funding problems when she took over as minister in June 2021.

She has spent departmental money enabling things like "holiday hunger" food payments and the continuation of the Engage programme, which provided extra teachers to help pupils whose learning had been affected by the pandemic.

But any wider reform has been shelved until the Independent Review of Northern Ireland's Education system reports in 2023.

That will be for her successor to deliver, but they are likely to face big problems with a squeezed education budget and teachers looking for a pay deal to match the cost of living.

Health - Robin Swann

Robin Swann may have appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine, but his tenure will be remembered for one thing - Covid-19.

He became health minister just weeks before the pandemic hit.

Taking his lead from Westminster, he steered the local Covid ship with steady hands, placing the public first ahead of politics.

It will be up to the UK Covid inquiry to scrutinise the performance of all health ministers.

Beyond Covid, his legacy becomes a little greyer.

The abortion issue was fudged and parked several times, and only this week the secretary of state stepped in and said he will ensure that services are now commissioned in Northern Ireland.

Progress has been made on transforming hospital services especially around the creation of elective care hubs, but controversial decisions involving key services at Daisy Hill and the South West Acute Hospital were avoided.

On the other big tickets - cancer, waiting lists and mental health - work is well under way but it will be some time before any progress is felt.

Justice - Naomi Long

Justice Minister Naomi Long has overseen the passage of five pieces of legislation on touchstone issues like domestic abuse, which accounts for almost 20% of all reported crimes in Northern Ireland.

New laws now cover non-physical abusive behaviour such as coercive control and there have been other bills dealing with offences like stalking and up-skirting.

She leaves the Department of Justice at a time when it is facing massive financial challenges.

Before Stormont collapsed, it was shaping up to be the biggest budget loser - arguably the greatest consequence could see police officer numbers reduce by about 1,000 over the next three years.