Michelle McIlveen MLA is a Northern Irish unionist politician, serving as General Secretary of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) since 2008. she is the party's Spokesperson for Environment, Climate and Fisheries. She served as Minister for Education from June 2021 to October 2022, and a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Strangford since 2007.

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is a government department in the Northern Ireland Executive, the devolved administration for Northern Ireland. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. The department was called the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development between 1999 and 2016. The Minister of Agriculture previously existed in the Government of Northern Ireland (1921–1972), where the department was known as the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland or the Ministry of Agriculture. The current Permanent Secretary is Katrina Godfrey.