 No timescale for the abolition was outlined and the department remained in operation, as of late March 2012.From 2 December 1999 to 25 May 2016, the department was headed by Sinn Féin legislators.It was not until 25 May 2016 that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)'s Peter Weir became the first non-Sinn Féin politician to head the Northern Ireland Department of Education.