Coronavirus: Sinn Féin offices received business grant

Three Sinn Féin offices received payments from Stormont's emergency Covid fund for small businesses.

This was despite MP and MLA constituency offices being ineligible for the scheme.

Payments were sent out automatically to 7,000 bank accounts, including to bank accounts of entities now deemed ineligible.

The party told The Nolan Show the "unsolicited" funding has since been repaid.

But it is now coming under pressure from other parties to reveal when the repayments were made.

"Three Sinn Féin offices received automatic and unsolicited payments of £10,000 under the Small Business Grant Scheme," a spokesperson said.

"Sinn Féin offices did not qualify and did not apply for the scheme and the monies have been returned to the LPS [Land and Property Services]."

More than £4.5m was paid out by Stormont to businesses who may not have been entitled to a Covid-19 support grant.

Figures released by the Department for the Economy (DfE) show that of the 24,700 payments processed under the Small Businesses Grant Support Scheme, 452 payments were made to those who may "not be eligible" for funding.

Political party offices were not eligible to receive the cash, which was aimed at supporting small business at the beginning of the first lockdown in March.

The DUP, SDLP, Ulster Unionist Party and Alliance have all said that none of their MLAs or MPs received the grant.

A spokesperson for the DUP said no MLA or MP received the £10,000 small business grant.

An SDLP spokesperson said: "The guidance issued states that MP and MLA constituency offices are not eligible for the £10,000 business relief grant.

"No SDLP MP or MLA has applied for, sought or received a payment for their constituency office."

On the issue of payments to MPs or MLAs, DfE said no payments were made to "a person of the same party as the minister" - the DUP's Diane Dodds.

One Sinn Féin MLA said he had received the payment, but could not say when it was paid back.

Sinn Féin MLA Maolíosa McHugh's office received the grant, which would have been automatically lodged in a Sinn Féin bank account in March.

He said he had contacted party officials to make arrangements to pay the money back "quite a while ago".

He told the Nolan Show "there was a thing came out yesterday to confirm it was done".

When asked specifically if the money had been paid back "quite a while ago", Mr McHugh said: "No, I am not saying that."

Mr McHugh said the party had "great difficulty contacting Land and Property Services at the time and getting it paid back to them".

He said the grant had now been paid back, but could not rule out that it was paid back as late as Monday when erroneous payments were revealed by the Nolan Show.

Mr McHugh sits on the Assembly's Finance Committee, where Ian Snowdon, Chief Executive of LPS, appeared last Wednesday.

Sinn Féin was asked that if Mr McHugh was aware of a problem in the system with returning unnecessary payments, why the MLA didn't raise his experience so that the issue could be rectified.

Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister said he has asked the assembly's standards commissioner to investigate whether Mr McHugh has breached the code of conduct for MLAs.

DUP MLA Gary Middleton also said he would be writing to the assembly's standards commissioner.

He called on Sinn Féin "to be straight" with the public over the issue.

"At a time when many businesses are fighting to survive the integrity of the public purse is of paramount importance," said Mr Middleton.

The Nolan Show contacted Sinn Féin Senator Elisha McCallion about whether her office in Londonderry had received the grant.

No response was given on the telephone call, and there was no reply to a question sent by text.

Earlier this week the Department for the Economy revealed that 52 owners of wind turbines and one owner of an anaerobic digester had received the payment.

The Small Business Grant Scheme closed last week and the payments in question represent less than 2% of the overall handout.

DfE said 70 of the 452 businesses who received the money in error have paid it back.

It said that the NI Executive was aware that there was a risk that some businesses would receive financial support but would not require it.

The department added that it is "content that it took the necessary, swift action to support tens of thousands of businesses facing serious difficulties, or failure, caused by the Covid-19 crisis".