Communities minister calls for Alliance apology over 'baseless and outrageous' claim about civil servants

​Gordon Lyons says Kellie Armstrong should apologise for comments she made at an Assembly committee last week – but the Strangford MLA made no mention of the issue when the body reconvened on Thursday.

She had accused civil servants of “misogyny” over not including various lobby groups in the next stage of a scheme being undertaken by the department of communities on issues such as gender equality.

Kellie Armstrong also accused civil servants of a failure to deliver on strategies that could “improve all of our lives” – and said officials are “discriminating against people”.

Minister Gordon Lyons slammed the Alliance MLA’s views in a statement to the News Letter.

“The very serious accusations of misogyny against hard working officials in my Department are baseless and regrettable. It is inappropriate for members of the Committee to make such accusations, and no evidence has been provided to support this outrageous claim.

“It is my expectation that having reflected on these comments, there will be an apology at the next Committee meeting.

“I am grateful for the work that has been undertaken, and all of the knowledge and expertise that has been shared, through the work of the various Co-Design Groups and I am keen that the work to date is built upon, which has provided a basis to move to the next stage of the work”, he said.

This week Gordon Lyons revealed in an interview with the News Letter that he won’t “outsource” policy decisions to lobby groups – saying they are matters for elected politicians and the Executive.

He has scrapped a ‘co-design’ process introduced by the previous Sinn Fein minister Deirdre Hargey. The scheme meant interest groups had an ongoing input into policies written by civil servants.

Kellie Armstrong’s comments were made during a discussion about an end to the co-design groups, which had been working on various equality strategies.

Last week MLAs heard frustrations from groups involved in the exercise, who had wanted to continue to input into the process. However, they were told by the Department of Communities that they were no longer required.

Addressing the women’s groups who were giving evidence, as well as the Rainbow Project, Mrs Armstrong said: “It breaks my heart to think that there are civil servants out there who are just passing paper around a table instead of actually getting on with strategies that can improve all of our lives.

“Because I know a lot of people think that the gender equality strategy is all about women.

“It's about improving lives across Northern Ireland, and the fact that we haven't had an appropriate use of Section 75 for years makes me furious.

“To be honest, it's an absolute waste of civil servants time telling us that they're not discriminating against people when they are. But you can tell I'm quite frustrated.

“I could do time because I know the amount of work that was put in in the last mandate, and all of that time for the community and voluntary sector to be told 'you're not needed anymore, we'll do it ourselves'. That's misogyny”.

The News Letter has asked the Alliance Party for a response to Mr Lyons’ comments, and whether it stands over the allegations its MLA made. At the time of going to print there was no response.