Bobby Storey funeral: ‘Only an independent investigation will do’ says DUP council chief

George Dorrian, head of the DUP group, said however that he is not entertaining the idea of a walkout by his members if they fail to get such an inquiry.

Mr Dorrian was speaking ahead of a special council meeting today at 3pm to discuss the council’s handling of the Bobby Storey furore.

Concerns raised in the past week have included the fact that Mr Storey’s family was the only one of nine grieving families that day which was allowed a service by the crematorium.

Mr Dorrian told the News Letter a motion for an independent investigation will be tabled on Friday.

He is expected a report from the council’s own internal investigation prior to the meeting.

But he said: “We think we now have a need for this independent investigation. It’d help the council re-establish its own credibility. It’s been severely damaged.

“An independent investigation is really the key, and that’s the thing we’d be putting forth.

“It will help clear the air and we’ll know an absolute, definite timeline of events.”

The support of other parties will be crucial for the success of the motion.

Sinn Fein dominates the council with 18 councillors.

The DUP is the next biggest group with 15, followed by the Alliance with 10 councillors, SDLP with six, People Before Profit and Greens with three each, and UUP and PUP with two each.

If the DUP does not get an independent investigation,they will not walk out of council.

“There’s a lot of things going on in the city that need public representatives there, in terms of the recovery, and the fact we’ve still got a pandemic,” he said.

“Walking out of things in my view does not solve problems. You walk away, the problem is still there. The only difference is you’re outside the door.

“We’ve nothing to fear from an examination of anything that went on.

“They key to it is simply getting to the facts.”

Does he expect firings or resignations?

“We’re not going to go down that route,” he said.

“We want to keep it focused on learning what happened, why it happened.”

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