Commenting on the DSD Committee finding that Nelson McCausland misled the committee, TUV leader and committee member, Jim Allister, said:-
“The determined efforts which Mr McCausland and his Special Adviser made to cover up that the meeting was with Turkingtons was compelling evidence in itself that his misleading of the committee was deliberate and not ‘inadvertent’ as he eventually claimed. Even that acknowledgement only came when he had run out of road in terms of his persistent attempts to claim the meeting was in fact with the Glass and Glazing Federation. Altering minutes, repudiating advice from everyone else at the meeting and changing Assembly Answers, all point to a determined course of action to lay a false trail.
“In any credible democracy a minister found guilty of deliberately misleading his scrutiny committee would be packing his bags. But, this is Stormont, where anything goes. So, no doubt, the minister and his party will seek to brazen it out. The issue here is not whether NIHE was saved money. The issue is why the minister felt it necessary to pretend he had met someone other than a DUP supporting company in the events leading to contract changes.
“The minister’s credibility, like his evidence, is shot through. He should go.”