Assembly career McIlveen was elected to the
Northern Ireland Assembly for the
North Antrim constituency in 2011. McIlveen has a keen interest in conflict studies with particular interest in The Middle East. After welcoming the release of captured Israeli soldier
Gilad Shalit, he made remarks to
The Newsletter claiming Palestinian prisoners were much better treated than Israelis who were snatched at the border by Hamas and given no rights afforded to them in relation to inspections from The Red Cross. Timothy Houston of
Queen's University Belfast's Palestine Solidarity Society published an open letter accusing McIlveen of bias and overlooking human rights abuses. David McIlveen claims "close ties with Israel" following boyhood visits with his father, and has visited the region both personally and with political delegations on numerous occasions. At the
2016 Assembly election, McIlveen lost his seat to running mate,
Phillip Logan.
Subsequent activity From August 2015-May 2017, McIlveen was a Political Member of the
Northern Ireland Policing Board. He did not campaign publicly with his party for the
2016 Brexit referendum, and described himself as a reformist, rather than leave supporter. In January 2017, McIlveen criticised then party leader and
First Minister,
Arlene Foster, over her handling of the
Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) scandal, describing it as an "omnishambles", and that she had "seriously misjudged" public anger over the scheme. Ahead of the
2017 Assembly election, he endorsed
Robin Swann of the
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), rather than any of the DUP candidates, in North Antrim. Since leaving politics in 2017, McIlveen has returned to private sector and runs various companies mainly aligned to the property sector. He now resides outside of Northern Ireland. ==Personal life==