Statement by TUV North Antrim MLA Timothy Gaston:
“The Stormont system has many deficiencies but one of the improvements to it made by my predecessor Jim Allister was to make provision for the Assembly Commissioner for Standards to investigate potential breaches of the Ministerial Code. Following today’s publication of a photograph showing Ms O’Neill in close proximity to convicted sex offender Michael McMonagle at an event in Stormont’s Great Hall in February last year, I have today written to the Commissioner asking her to investigate potential breaches of the Ministerial Code. The code requires Ministers to uphold the seven principles of public life, including openness and honesty. The photograph published today demands that the First Minister answers for how she has upheld these principles.
“I have also tabled a Matter of the Day and an Urgent Oral question on the matter which I trust will result in an opportunity for these profoundly serious issues to be discussed on the floor of the Assembly on Monday.
“It is important to note that Ms O’Neill is not the only person in the Sinn Fein ministerial team with serious questions to answer. During yesterday’s meeting of the Executive Office Committee I attempted to ask Junior Minister Reilly if she would say the same as the First Minister and claim that she didn’t see McMonagle at the Stormont event. Ms O’Neill, with the assistance of the committee chair, shielded Junior Minister Reilly from that question. Had she been required to answer and the committee performed its proper role in scrutinising the Ministers rather than having a chair protect them I would have challenged Junior Minister Reilly on the fact that she can be seen in a photo with McMonagle.
“This whole affair proves once again that Sinn Fein are supremely unfit for office. It’s time the Unionists in the Executive pulled the plug.”