Politics

Michelle O’Neill may be recalled by Stormont committee to answer more questions on Michael McMonagle controversy

MLAs seeking legal advice on whether Sinn Féin First Minister can appear before them without DUP Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly

First Minister Michelle O'Neill answering questions in the Northern Ireland Assembly about Sinn Féin's handling of the Michael McMonagle controversy. Screen grab: NI Assembly Broadcasting/PA Wire
First Minister Michelle O'Neill answering questions in the Northern Ireland Assembly about Sinn Féin's handling of the Michael McMonagle controversy. Screen grab: NI Assembly Broadcasting/PA Wire
Freya McClements
Wed Oct 09 2024 - 22:11

The Stormont committee which scrutinises the Executive Office is to seek legal advice on inviting First Minister Michelle O’Neill to appear before it again to answer additional questions about the Michael McMonagle controversy.

Members of the Executive Office committee agreed on Wednesday to seek advice on whether Ms O’Neill and her Sinn Féin colleague, junior Minister Aisling Reilly, could appear before them without Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly and junior Minister Pam Cameron, both DUP politicians, and the remit of potential questions.

All four Ministers appeared before the committee a week ago, when Ms O’Neill took questions for the first time after it emerged two Sinn Féin press officers provided references for a former colleague who was subsequently convicted of child sex offences.

Seán Mag Uidhir, an influential Sinn Féin figure who headed the party’s media operation in the North, and his colleague Caolán McGinley quit last month after it was revealed they provided the references for McMonagle, another former party press officer.

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The 42-year-old, from Limewood Street in Derry, has pleaded guilty to two charges of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, and 12 counts of attempted sexual communication with a child on dates from 2020-21.

McMonagle was suspended from his job with Sinn Féin after he was arrested in August 2021, and in September 2022 was appointed to the role of communications and engagement manager with the British Heart Foundation in Belfast.

The charges against him became public in July 2023, and he was suspended and then dismissed by the charity.

Ms O’Neill has since apologised for the “hurt and distress caused by their actions” and the Sinn Féin president, Mary Lou McDonald, has ordered a “complete overhaul” of governance procedures within the party.

At Wednesday’s committee session Sinn Féin Assembly member (MLA) Carál Ní Chuilín said she had “no issue with anybody getting called back, I just think it’s either the four Ministers or it’s none, because that just, for me, makes a mockery of the joint office.

[ Michael McMonagle controversy timeline from 2021 arrest to Sinn Féin apology ]

“I want to get legal advice on the callback, should it be two or four, and the legal advice on what issues pending from last week that they can answer, because some of this stuff I think is starting to get a bit blurred.”

The DUP MLA Brian Kingston said that at last week’s meeting, “essentially the First Minister was saying the fault lay with two press officers who have been sacked. Since then it has got to the stage where the First Minister has apologised to the British Heart Foundation, accepted the errors her party made. That change in position has only come about through scrutiny, scrutiny by this committee, the media, by the Assembly.

“The First Minister is embroiled in a safeguarding failure and a safeguarding scandal and we do have to act.”

SDLP MLA Sinéad McLaughlin said she supported the return of all four Ministers to the committee, saying: “I feel we have lost a wee bit of our moral duty until we get this resolved.”

Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) MLA Timothy Gaston said: “We need some transparency, there hasn’t been any transparency to date ... the First Minister’s reputation and that of the Executive Office is in tatters because of that.”

Independent unionist MLA Claire Sugden agreed the recall of Ministers could only be done on a legal basis.

“My concern is that if we bring them back on issues which we legally can’t, then they have every right to say no.

“We need to be clear about what we can ask them and what we can’t.”

The committee chair, Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw, said she had asked the clerk to reach out to the British Heart Foundation to offer it the opportunity to appear before the committee, but the charity had declined.

“They said they’d just like to draw a line under it after they issued their statement.”

– Additional reporting: PA

Freya McClements

Freya McClements

Freya McClements is Northern Editor of The Irish Times