First Minister Michelle O’Neill could face questions from MLAs on the Michael McMonagle safeguarding controversy as early as next week.
The Executive Committee agreed on Wednesday to invite the Sinn Féin deputy leader and her Executive Office colleagues to answer question around the Michael McMonagle affair as an “urgent priority”.
After previously answering MLAs’ questions on the matter earlier this month, Ms O’Neill asked that the record of proceedings be corrected because she had claimed to have had no interaction with representatives of the British Heart Foundation, for which her former press officer worked.
She revised her initial assertion after footage emerged showing her speaking to the charity’s chief executive in Stormont’s Great Hall.
Ms O’Neill maintains she did not see the then suspected sex offender McMonagle at the same event in February last year.
Photographs of the February 2023 event at Parliament Buildings show Junior Minister Aisling Reilly within feet of the former party press officer while he was being investigated for sex offences.
The Executive Office Committee’s protocol dictates that both the first and deputy first ministers, along with junior ministers, are invited though it is unclear whether the DUP’s Emma Little-Pengelly and Pam Cameron will appear, as MLAs’ questions are most likely to be directed solely at Sinn Féin ministers.
The Irish News understands that written questions for Ms O’Neill and Junior Minister Aisling Reilly must be submitted by close of business on Friday, even though a date has yet to be agreed for the committee session.
The committee’s next scheduled meeting is next Wednesday October 23.
When asked last week if the first minister would accept the committee’s invite, a party spokesperson said Ms O’Neill had made it “clear” in the assembly at the beginning of last week “she would engage with the chair of the Executive Office Committee”.
The committee has yet to receive the legal advice it sought around its remit.
Committee chair Paula Bradshaw said the legal advice was requested to ascertain whether the first minister and Sinn Féin junior minister could be invited back on their own.
“This advice was not received in time for this week’s meeting, so it was agreed we would proceed with an invitation to the private office for all four ministers to come back to committee,” she said.
“It was further agreed it would be stressed the invitation should be treated as urgent and a priority, and a list of potential lines of questioning would be provided in advance.”
She said committee members agreed they would “meet to accommodate this meeting should the first minister not be available on a Wednesday afternoon in the near future”.
SDLP committee member Sinéad McLaughlin said it was necessary for MLAs to scrutinise the issues around the McMonagle safeguarding controversy and other matters that have come to light “to ensure in future our committee operates effectively with integrity”.
“As a committee we deal with an extensive number of victims and survivors groups and seek to make institutions accountable for their actions, so it is only right that we apply the same rigour to those at the top of our political institutions,” she said.
“The Executive Office Committee for me is the appropriate forum to discuss this matter of public concern as the protocols and formalities of the assembly constrain the manner in which MLAs can scrutinise ministers in the chamber.”
