Northern Ireland's DUP First Minister Peter Robinson says he will step down within weeks

The First Minister has suffered from health issues

Peter Robinson (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

Northern Ireland’s First Minister has announced his intention to step down from his post within weeks.

Peter Robinson told the Belfast Telegraph newspaper that he would quit as Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader and that politics needed “new ideas”.

“For anyone who is not very young to go beyond two terms is stretching it,” he told the newspaper.

“There are massive pressures on anybody in this job. You do need to renew political leadership, bringing in people with perhaps more energy and people with new ideas.”

The First Minister has previously suffered from health issues, including a heart attack in May. He was admitted to hospital as a precaution in September.

Mr Robinson revealed that he had twice proposed standing down as party leader in 2011 and 2015 but that he had been persuaded to remain by officials.

His retirement will spark a hunt for a successor; other high-profile DUP politicians include its Westminster group leader Nigel Dodds.

Northern Ireland operates a distinctive “power-sharing” system of Government where contentious decisions are supposed to be taken with consent of both nationalist and unionist parties.

On Wednesday the DUP and Sinn Fein came to a deal with the British and Irish Governments to resolve a political deadlock arising from the issues on welfare reform and paramilitary groups.

There was still no agreement on the way forward on legacy issues related to Northern Ireland’s Troubles period, however.

The DUP is the biggest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly with 38 seats. It currently leads a power-sharing Government with the nationalist Sinn Fein and SDLP, as well as the liberal-non-aligned Alliance party.

Mr Robinson’s party also holds eight out of 18 Northern Ireland seats in the House of Commons and one of its three seats in the European Parliament.