DUP members have rallied to the defence of the education minister over his recent trip to Israel, with Sinn Fein being accused of "hypocrisy" for criticising it.

The matter was raised at Stormont's education committee today, with the Department of Education's top civil servant Ronnie Armour quizzed about the matter.

The issue became controversial because during his six-day trip to Israel, the education minister Paul Givan asked officials to put out a press release about his visit to a school (which the department also subsequently promoted on social media).

At the committee today, permanent secretary Mr Armour was asked why, if Mr Givan was on the trip in a personal capacity rather than as the minister, civil servants were spending time promoting any aspect of that trip.

placeholder image — Ronnie Armour being quizzed before the committee

Mr Armour told MLAs: "The stated purpose of the visit was to gain insight into Israel's culture, cultural, social and political landscape.

"It was not framed as an educational visit, nor was it organized through the official departmental channels.

"The trip was therefore not subject to departmental approval processes.

"The department did not fund any aspect of the visit. No public expenditure was incurred on travel or accommodation."

In all, probably between two to three hours' of officials' time was spent on assisting with the minister's trip, Mr Armour estimated, doing things like getting IT clearance for him to take his official mobile phone to Israel.

Mr Armour said that, whilst he was on holiday himself, he had received a request from the minister to put out a press release about his visit to the Israeli school.

He reviewed the text of it, which he described as a mere "factual account" of the school visit that "did not contain political content", and approved it.

Mr Armour told the committee that at the time he was unaware the school in greater Jerusalem actually lay in the West Bank - territory internationally-recognised as Palestinian, but under Israeli control.

In defence of his decision in the face of Sinn Fein and SDLP questioning, Mr Armour said he didn't think "it was for me to make a decision on the wider politics" of the region, that "the threshold for refusing a ministerial request is high", and that ultimately he "stood over" his decision-making process.

When it came turn of the unionists on the committee to speak, DUP MLA Gary Middleton said the matter was a “manufactured crisis”.

He also pointed to the “hypocrisy” of Sinn Fein's complaints given that the Sinn Fein economy minister Caoimhe Archibald had issued a statement last month accusing Israel of "genocide" and "apartheid" and instructing her officials to have no role in trade talks with it.

DUP MLA David Brooks, who was on the trip to Israel alongside Mr Givan, said Mr Armour appeared "caught in a storm which has more than just some logistics at play, but also wider politics too".

He said: "I'm sure the department has spent much more time on it since he [Mr Givan] returned than when he was there."

He added "if we're going to worry about the time spent on this issue, it's time spent because members have chosen to have that time spent".

This echoed a similar point made by UUP MLA Jon Burrows, who said to Mr Armour: "I think you are embroiled in a legal dispute that probably reflects upon our own dysfunctional politics in Northern Ireland.

"And I want to say at the outset, we're again dealing with this issue in Israel.

"I've received correspondence today that there are 33 special needs and non-special needs children in a school in Northern Ireland got to spend two weeks at home because their classroom is infested with black mould that hasn't been dealt with.

"So I just think we should focus on those issues."