Covid fund fiasco: O’Neill faces grilling over ‘integrity’ of SF when it comes to public cash

The deputy first minister was quizzed as part of the regular weekly press briefings which she gives to the media alongside Arlene Foster.

Amid discussion about the current state of play of the coronavirus outbreak, she was confronted with questions about the ethos of her party in the wake of the revelations about three £10,000 business support payments which were wrongly made to Sinn Fein-connected accounts.

One reporter asked Mrs O’Neill: “What attitude would you say SF has to financial matters when it’s appeared that three of SF’s offices received £10,000 in error, and it took seven months for that money to be paid back? How can anyone believe there’s any kind of integrity there?”

“Unequivocally, what happened was wrong,” replied Ms O’Neill.

“I can be no clearer than that. But I do believe we moved speedily to correct what was wrong.”

At another point a journalist asked: “Isn’t the reality here that, had it not been for the Stephen Nolan investigation, that £30,000 would today still be sitting in the bank accounts of Sinn Fein?”

Ms O’Neill said: “I only can speak for my actions – I only became aware of this situation on Monday evening.

“From then until now we’ve taken immediate action. I think that’s clear and decisive action that was necessary.”

She said, when it comes to Elisha McCallion, “the money was paid into Elisha’s account, and she was the individual that was responsible for returning it; so she had sole responsibility and therefore we’ve accepted her resignation”.

The previous day, the Department for the Economy – in charge of the business support schemes – had said in all over 24,600 payments of £10,000 had been made to small businesses.

It estimated that 452 had gone to businesses or premises which were not eligible for funding. Of those, around 70 have been repaid.

Of all Stormont’s main parties, the SDLP has been perhaps the most critical of Sinn Fein’s handling of the affair.

And in a statement yesterday its finance spokesman Matthew O’Toole MLA said despite the resignations, “Sinn Fein has further questions to answer around the Covid support scheme scandal”.

Meanwhile, the Department of Finance denied that there was any attempt to block the release of details about the fiasco, after ‘The Nolan Show’ claimed on Wednesday there had been a behind-the-scenes “war” over what to release.

The department said: “Neither the finance minister nor the Department of Finance sought to prevent or hamper the release of any information in relation to ineligible payments made under the Small Business Grants Scheme.”

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