Sammy Wilson: If other parties let SF off hook they will damage Stormont

However the other parties in the Assembly, especially those who facilitated the public platform for Jamie Bryson to make his unsupported allegations with the aid of the Sinn Fein chairman and members of the DFP committee, would be doing untold damage to the already tarnished Assembly if they allowed Sinn Fein off the hook.

Whilst Martin McGuiness protests his ignorance of the affair and claims Manuel like that “I know nothing”, all the evidence points to a well planned Sinn Fein strategy to give a platform to Bryson to make his outrageous claims in an effort to damage both Peter Robinson and Frank Cushnahan.

Since other Sinn Fein members on the committee had to play a part in the questions and the timing of those questions they would at least have had to know that there was a plot to abuse the committee process and privilege even if they had not been involved in devising it. This makes them as guilty as McKay.

Secondly since Sinn Fein are claiming that they would never have been involved in such actions they are admitting that they know how abusive the conspiracy was.

They had senior members on the committee so presumably they knew the consequences of engaging in these illegal machinations and are bound to have told someone in the party hierarchy. Given Sinn Fein’s rigid party structure it is impossible to believe that this did not happen.

Thirdly many commentators have speculated why McKay who was one of the more prominent and able Sinn Fein Assembly members did not receive any post in the new Assembly and was overlooked in favour of newer and less experienced members when it came to promotion.

Could it be that the party leaders knew what he had done and were ensuring that their embarrassment was minimised if the truth ever came out as it was bound to do given the penchant that Jamie Bryson had for self promotion and publicity?

One person who is already sullied because of his financial association with Gareth Graham through his business and his promotion of Graham’s case through the DFP committee inquiry, without declaring that he had any such association until I challenged him when I appeared at the committee, is Martin O’Muilleoir.

An investigation is needed into the part he played in this abuse of his own departmental committee.

Whilst this matter remains uninvestigated it is hard to see how he can retain his credibility as a minister and therefore he should go – otherwise many will draw the conclusion that McKay was given the boot to throw the spotlight of truth off the Finance Minister and the Sinn Fein hierarchy.

Sammy Wilson is DUP MP for East Antrim

O’Muilleoir: I had no knowledge of McKay and Bryson messages