In Section 8 as originally enacted, it was provided that every person appointed to be head of a Department in Northern Ireland was automatically to be a member of the Northern Ireland Executive. The new provisions in Section 8 will, however, be more flexible. It is no longer provided that every head of Department shall automatically be a member of the Executive. It is instead provided, in the new subsection (3)(a), that a head of Department may be appointed to be a member of the Executive. That this new degree of flexibility is a welcome one is shown by the fact that the Northern Ireland parties have agreed that two of the heads of Department should not be members of the Executive.