Statement by TUV MLA Timothy Gaston:
“The report by Jonathan McMillen, the Assembly’s head of legal services, following allegations of abuse of public funds by Sinn Fein is a scandalous whitewash.
“I believe that the report’s publication was rushed after it became clear that I was tabling a motion on the issue which would be debated shortly. The motion had to be tabled by noon today. The report was published at 4pm.
“I and my party will publish a more detailed response in due course but at a quick reading the following is obvious:
1. Mr McMillen didn’t interview anyone. He admits in the report himself that this was a purely paper based exercise.
2. Mr McMillen finds that Michael McMonagle couldn’t have physically worked the hours he was contracted for but also accepts, without question, that Ms O’Neill didn’t know this because she was so busy.
3. Mr McMillen even accepts at face value Ms O’Neill’s claim that she didn’t know he was writing articles for Republican News in which he was described as a Sinn Fein press officer and
4. Mr McMillen accepts that he could have asked members of the media what their relationship with Sinn Fein staff members was but such would have been of limited use as it would have been merely anecdotal whereas he had the Assembly paper trail to go on and could speak to the MLAs whose word he takes as Gospel.
“The mindset behind the report is clearly spelt out in paragraph 118:
“ Ms O’Neill has been a Northern Ireland Minister since 2011, becoming dFM in 2020
and First Minister in 2024, in which period there is no record of any complaint under the Ministerial Code of Conduct or Assembly Members’ Code of Conduct against her being upheld.”
“Mr McMillen clearly came to this process with a mind already made up as to what his conclusions would be and those were never going to involve challenging Ms O’Neill.
“This report is a sham and a whitewash – something I aim to expose when I bring the issues around it to the floor of the Assembly.
“As with the Storey funeral the powers that be are intent on telling us there is nothing to see here – even when the truth is blindingly obvious.”