An Ulster Unionist has made a fresh attack on the conduct of the council to which he belongs, accusing fellow councillors of presiding over a “whitewash”.

At a meeting of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s (FODC) Regeneration and Community Committee last night councillor Mark Ovens (Erne West) dismissed proceedings as a “shambles”, and laid the blame with Sinn Fein.

His party colleague Victor Warrington (Erne East) said that certain matters were being “skipped over” to “protect” unnamed members of the council – but the matter was brought to a close when the chairman and a fellow councillor (both members of Sinn Fein) called for an to end to the discussion.

One of the Sinn Fein councillors branded councillor Ovens’ contribution to the meeting “a disgrace”.

placeholder image — Councillor Ovens (who has also worked as a UUP Stormont special adviser and press officer) speaking during the committee meeting last night

It is not the first time that councillor Ovens has criticised the council’s behaviour; in June, he accused it of behaving in an “underhanded way” with proposals for an online only booking system for household recycling centres.

That had drawn a rebuke from the chief executive, and the Sinn Fein-dominated council then banned him from speaking again for the duration of that meeting.

At the centre of the latest controversy is the alleged mishandling of a grants scheme run by the council: the £1m Strategic Capital Projects Grant Programme 2026/2027.

Among the papers for last night’s committee meeting were the minutes of a previous sitting of the council’s Grant Aid e-Panel, which spoke of “concern around a potential breach of confidentiality” in the grants process – though it was not clear exactly what that means.

Councillor Ovens is not a member of the Regeneration and Community Committee, but was allowed to speak at last night’s meeting.

He began to raise the issue of the alleged breach of confidentiality around the grant fund.

Council chief executive Alison McCullagh said: “It’s just to maybe remind the member that if he’s proceeding down a certain line it would be appropriate for that to be raised in confidential business, as opposed to being open session.”

Councillor Ovens responded that he was only “reflecting” the already-public minutes of a grant aid panel meeting.

“This is part of the problem with FODC: it has a tendency to bury really important updates within confidential matters, when they have no basis or no genuine rationale,” he said.

"So the minutes talk about a potential breach of confidentiality.

"We know what has happened now.

"We know the scale and significance of what has happened and what has been acknowledged.

"We know that it potentially… or in my opinion, it did undermine this entire grant process.

"It delayed the awards of these sums...”

Chairman Patrick Withers (SF, Mid Tyrone) then came in to say “you have mentioned the confidentiality of the process and what’s happened – that’s fine, but you can’t go into details about the confidential business in open business”.

Councillor Ovens said he appreciated that, but firstly “I refute the fact this is, or even should be confidential” and secondly “I base my remarks on the public grant aid minutes”.

"This is a hugely significant issue. I’m really surprised...” added councillor Ovens, before the chairman let councillor Tommy Maguire in to speak.

Councillor Maguire (SF, Enniskillen) said: “I really can’t believe the conversation’s taking place.

"We’re all aware of the issue, and the issue is being dealt with in the proper way as was discussed last week – in confidential [proceedings].

"For the councillor to come and seek rights to a committee that he isn’t actually a member of, and to proceed to try again to bring into the public arena an issue that has already been dealt with by the council, I find it disgraceful to tell you the truth, chair."

Councillor Maguire then proposed that the meeting “move on” from the issue.

"This is a shambles, chair,” protested councillor Ovens, twice.

Councillor Ovens’ UUP colleague councillor Victor Warrington then said “again, we’re skipping over stuff here to basically to protect certain members of this council...”

The chairman then intervened to say that the matters under discussion are “confidential for a reason” (he did not cite the reason), and that the meeting was going to move on.

Councillor Warrington disputed this, saying that the decision to drop the topic “was not agreed by everyone in this chamber”.

"We’re moving on, councillor Warrington,” said the chairman.

Councillor Ovens said: “Of course you are.

"This is a whitewash – it’s an absolute whitewash, and I’m not surprised from Sinn Fein.”

The meeting then went on to discuss a business improvement zone in Omagh.