Three Executive departments are set to have new leadership at civil service level, with new permanent secretaries being appointed at the Department for Communities, Department of Education, and Department for Infrastructure.
The permanent secretary of an Executive department is the department’s leader at civil service level. Typically, the permanent secretary is responsible for implementing the agenda being pursued by the Executive’s political leadership.
The outgoing permanent secretaries are Colum Boyle (Department for Communities), Ronnie Armour (Department of Education), and Denis McMahon (Department for Infrastructure).
Armour, a former head of the Northern Ireland Prison Service, had been serving as interim Permanent Secretary at the Department of Education since the unexplained departure of Mark Browne in November 2024.
In March 2025, agendaNi heard from a source that that the departure was due to a dispute between Minister Paul Givan MLA and Browne alongside other senior civil servants.
The Head of the Civil Service Jayne Brady has commissioned a report into the circumstances of Browne’s departure, however, the findings of this have not been published.
In addition to the new permanent secretaries, Louise Crilly has been appointed as the Departmental Solicitor and Head of Government Legal Service for Northern Ireland through a separate recruitment process.
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Grainia Long, Department for Communities
 Grainia Long, former Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, has been appointed the new Permanent Secretary of the Department for Communities. Long was head of the Housing Executive since February 2021. She has led a team of 3,500 people in a complex range of statutory duties and has had a responsibility for an annual budget of £1.2 billion. She has also provided strategic advice to the board of the Housing Executive, and policy advice to the Minister for Communities and senior departmental officials. Long has previously held roles with the Thames Valley Housing Association, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Chartered Institute of Housing, and the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland over the last 21 years.
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David Malcolm, Department of Education
 David Malcolm, former interim Permanent Secretary of The Executive Office, has been appointed Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education. Malcolm has been the interim Permanent Secretary of the Executive Office since June 2024. In this role, he is Principal Policy Advisor to the First Minister and deputy First Minister for departmental policy areas, such as Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG), Good Relations, and Race and Equality policy. Malcolm has had a long career in the Northern Ireland Civil Service.
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Emer Morelli, Department for Infrastructure
 Emer Morelli has been appointed Permanent Secretary in the Department for Infrastructure, having served as Deputy Secretary of the Engaged Communities Group in the Department for Communities since July 2022. In her role at DfC, Morelli has led 390 staff across a wide-ranging portfolio that includes responsibility for the Active Communities Division, state care monuments and statutory planning consultee, and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
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