Covid relief funds paid to accounts of three Sinn Fein offices

MP and MLA constituency offices are ineligible for the Small Business Grant Scheme.

However, under the scheme, launched in March, a £10,000 payment was automatically sent to any firm in receipt of small business rates relief.

Sinn Fein said the money has since been paid back.

“Three Sinn Fein offices received automatic and unsolicited payments of £10,000 under the Small Business Grant Scheme,” a spokesman said.

“Sinn Fein offices did not qualify and did not apply for the scheme and the monies have been returned to the LPS (Land & Property Services).”

The payments were reported on BBC Radio Ulster’s Stephen Nolan Show on Wednesday.

The report said that West Tyrone MLA Maoliosa McHugh’s office was one of the three Sinn Fein accounts which received the payment.

Mr McHugh told the programme that he had contacted party officials to make arrangements to pay the money back “quite a while ago”, adding that he received confirmation earlier this week that it had been repaid.

TUV leader Jim Allister has queried how much time elapsed before the money was paid back.

He said he has asked the Commissioner for Standards to investigate.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood queried whether Sinn Fein acted over the money until they were approached by the media.

“The Small Business Grant Scheme, approved in the Executive by Sinn Fein ministers, was designed to support local employers suffering financial hardship and prevent them from going to the wall. For employers across the North, it was a lifeline,” he said.

“It is galling that three Sinn Fein offices received a £10k support payment, and appear to have done very little about it until they were asked by the media.

“Many businesses and workers across the North have yet to receive a single penny in assistance and they will be rightly furious that a political party, who just last year received a £4 million donation, received this money.”

Fine Gael Senator Regina Doherty also claimed Sinn Fein has “questions to answer”.

“Why did it take until now to uncover this after the payments would have been made last March? Has it all been paid back? And how did they receive the funding without applying for it?” she said.

“Despite their pleas of innocence, Sinn Fein face serious questions about this scheme. To date, they have not been forthcoming in their answers on this.”

Earlier this week it emerged that 52 wind turbine owners were also among those who received the payment.

The Department for the Economy, which runs the scheme, has since ruled that sector ineligible for grants.

The department defended its actions amid the “scale of the challenge” presented by the pandemic.

“The department has paid out more than £338 million to more than 32,000 businesses across the £10,000 Small Business Support Grant, the £25,000 Retail, Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Grant, and the NI Microbusiness Hardship Fund,” a spokesman said.

“It should be noted that the scale of the challenge presented by the pandemic, and the unprecedented speed and scale of the Executive’s response to it, was acknowledged by Comptroller and Auditor General Kieran Donnelly in the NI Audit Office report of 2 September 2020 on the Executive’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The department will, where possible, seek to recover any funding that may have been paid to those deemed ineligible to receive payment.”