Angry exchanges as first minister faces Stormont questions

First Minister Michelle O'Neill declined to answer questions at a Stormont scrutiny committee about Sinn Féin's handling of recent party controversies.

There were angry exchanges between members of the Executive Office committee as they disputed whether questions posed were within its legal remit.

O'Neill attended the committee on Wednesday amid controversy over Sinn Féin's handling of several issues involving former politicians and employees.

The Sinn Féin deputy leader repeatedly argued that questions being asked were "party political" and "not the remit of this committee".

Last week it emerged former Irish senator Niall Ó Donnghaile quit Sinn Féin over sending inappropriate texts to a teenager.

The party has also faced questions in recent weeks over how two former press officers gave job references for their former colleague and now convicted child sex offender Michael McMonagle.

And on Monday, a Sinn Féin employee resigned after a portrait of a former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) lord mayor was damaged at Belfast City Hall.

Attending the Executive Office committee on Wednesday, O'Neill declined to answer several questions on these issues.

The first minister said she had already "spoken extensively" about them and she had taken legal advice on the remit of the committee.

"I have been open, I have been transparent. I am here today absolutely representing the Executive Office in my capacity as first minister," she said.

O’Neill said that when she last appeared at the committee, "the lines between ministerial and party responsibilities were blurred".

"I think we all need to be conscious of the clear legal advice that we have," she added.

O'Neill said the committee shared some questions with her officials in advance of the meeting, but she had "significant concerns that these do not meet the test set by your legal advice or mine".

She added that "party political issues are not for this committee".

When asked about the damage to a DUP lord mayor portrait, O'Neill responded: "In terms of anything that potentially happened on Saturday night in city hall, I will not be commenting on."

Towards the end of the session there were angry exchanges between Sinn Féin and unionist members of the committee.

Sinn Féin assembly member Carál Ní Chuilín criticised Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) ministers for recent meetings with the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) – an umbrella body which includes representatives of loyalist paramilitary groups.

DUP assembly member Brian Kingston responded: "I think you know a lot more about paramilitary groups than I do."

Earlier there were sharp words between committee chair Paula Bradshaw of the Alliance Party and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) member Timothy Gaston.

Bradshaw rejected criticism from Gaston over her holding a meeting with the first minister ahead of the committee session.

But the Alliance Party assembly member said that "procedurally there are no issues" and it was "very standard practice" for a committee chair to meet with the relevant minister.

"To suggest this is some shady meeting is totally disingenuous," she added.

Speaking on the Nolan Live programme on Wednesday, Bradshaw said the meeting was "to demonstrate why she would be coming back to answer in her role as executive office minister as opposed to party political questions that she does not have to answer to at our committee."

The DUP's Brian Kingston told the programme he provided some sample questions in advance.

He added: "We were asking the minister to come back two weeks after she had been at committee and we had to provide a rationale for inviting her back."

Kingston said the questions were shown to provide context as to the type of questions members wanted to ask.

On Tuesday, the first minister corrected the record at Stormont regarding the age of a teenage boy who received inappropriate texts from Mr Ó Donnghaile.

The message is believed to have been personal in nature but not sexually explicit.

O'Neill had previously stated that party membership files said the boy was 17 at the time, but the young person said he was 16.

The assembly was told O'Neill "fully accepted" the age and wanted to correct the information on the record.

She also repeated her apology to the teenager, adding that she was "absolutely so sorry for the hurt caused" by the party's statement issued following Mr Ó Donnghaile's resignation from the Seanad (Irish senate) in December 2023.

Mr Ó Donnghaile, a former Belfast lord mayor, was suspended by Sinn Féin over the issue, but the party allowed him to resign on health grounds without revealing the complaint against him.

In the Republic of Ireland, Sinn Féin's leader Mary Lou McDonald also corrected the record officially in the Dáil (lower house of Irish parliament) surrounding the young person's age on Tuesday.

She said it was her understanding the boy was 17 at the time because of information provided on his application to join the party's youth wing, Ográ Sinn Fein.

"The young person themselves have made clear that he was in fact 16 at the time, so I want to correct the Dáil record to reflect that he was in fact 16 years of age when the text was sent," she said.

McDonald also apologised for a statement she provided after Mr Ó Donnghaile's resignation.

"I have now written to the young person and his mother offering a full, unequivocal and sincere apology," she said.

"What happened to this young person was wrong, Niall Ó Donnghaile's behaviour was unacceptable, utterly inappropriate, and no young person should have experienced that."