First Minister will decide whether minutes of rushed private meeting with would-be interrogator Paula Bradshaw are released

The Alliance MLA said this week that “someone” had taken minutes and she would release them, but the News Letter revealed that her officials kept no notes or minutes – but the Executive Office (TEO) may have.

Ms Bradshaw is now in the position of being reliant on the First Minister’s account of events – and whether or not she wishes to hand it over. A senior Stormont sources described the decision of the committee not to take notes of such an obviously sensitive meeting as “bizarre”.

It is still unclear whether the Executive Office kept a record, as they have not responded to questions on the matter, however they are legally obliged to.

An Assembly spokesperson confirmed that the TEO Committee has “not yet received the minutes of the informal meeting” but has submitted a request for them to TEO. “On receipt, they will be shared with Committee members. It is for the Committee to decide on the publication of these minutes”, the official said.

The TUV have branded the responses “evasive” – and say the whole situation raises questions over Stormont’s ability to get to the truth.

Meanwhile, the DUP have said the First Minister’s private meeting with Paula Bradshaw was an attempt to “police the questions” that would be put to her in the chaotic evidence session earlier this week.

The series of events before the meeting in which the First Minister refused to answer questions is now becoming clearer – and they paint a picture of Michelle O’Neill calling the shots.

Firstly, the Sinn Fein leader (the witness) requested the committee chair (supposedly the chief interrogator) to attend a meeting hosted by the First Minister, which was agreed. Committee members were given ten minutes notice that it was happening.

The Assembly says Ms Bradshaw was “hosted” at the “informal meeting” where “no notes or minutes were taken by Assembly Committee staff”. Ms Bradshaw has said herself that she didn’t take any notes.

However, Ms Bradshaw’s husband – who works as her part-time Parliamentary Officer – has contradicted the Assembly in a post on social media. Ian Parsley posted on X – after the Assembly had said no notes were taken – saying “I’m quite sure everyone in the meeting took notes, but the official note/minute (officially: ‘record of the meeting”’) is the responsibility of the Minister”.

Secondly, if as the DUP now claim, the First Minister’s intention was to “police” the questions asked of her, she succeeded – as a number of seemingly valid questions were closed down by the committee chair – as a confident Michelle O’Neill warned her about the legal advice she had received.

DUP MLA Brian Kingston told the BBC Nolan Show “I am in no doubt, the First Minister’s reason for seeking that meeting in advance… was to try and put pressure on her (Ms Bradshaw) to police the questions”. He said that MLAs had agreed beforehand that committee members could ask whatever questions they wanted – and it would be up to the First Minister to decide whether or not she answered.

We know that is correct from an intervention by the Alliance Party deputy chair of the committee during Wednesday’s meeting. Connie Egan read from the committee’s legal advice, saying it “said that witnesses could not be compelled to answer if it was felt it was not within the vires of the committee – not that the chair had to rule it out”.

Chair Paula Bradshaw accepted that, but then continued to rule out questions – including one from Timothy Gaston on Ms O’Neill’s employment of Michael McMonagle, which she deemed “an employment contract” issue.

Asked whether Paula Bradshaw had discussed or revealed to the First Minister any of the legal advice the committee had received during the meeting – an Assembly spokesperson said Ms Bradshaw “quoted a section from Strand One of the Belfast Agreement. She referred to Point 9 on the operation of the Assembly and the role of Committees. This section was also quoted in the legal advice provided to the Committee.”

Paula Bradshaw has said she did not reveal the committee’s legal advice to the First Minister. However, DUP MLA Phillip Brett has asked the Executive Office if Michelle O’Neill “was informed of or discussed the content of legal advice to the Committee” – and the department will have to reveal that eventually.

But the TUV have questions for the DUP deputy First Minister. The party has tabled questions about whether the First Minister’s department commissioned legal advice – and whether the deputy First Minister agreed to that.

The full circumstances surrounding the private meeting with Paula Bradshaw are yet to be revealed, but from what we know so far, it is already clear that the First Minister was calling the shots.

TUV: Many questions about meeting

There are many unanswered questions about the events surrounding the private meeting between Paula Bradshaw and Michelle O’Neill – which call into question the whole Stormont system's ability to get to the truth, according to the TUV.

​MLA Timothy Gaston raised the private meeting in heated scenes at the start of Wednesday’s evidence session with the First Minister – and requested details of when an email was sent by Michelle O’Neill to request it.

Ms Bradshaw, the Executive Office committee chair, said she would be happy to provide the details in the committee pack for the next meeting – and disputed an inference that it was unusual that the time of the request was not provided by officials.

Responding to answers from the Assembly Commission (above) a TUV spokesperson said: “These evasive answers will do nothing to restore the reputation - if there ever was on - of the Assembly.

“Had the chair been open with the committee and ensured that the full, unredacted email was sent to committee members - as should have been standard procedure- these questions would not have to be asked.

“Did it come from the Executive Office? The comments of the deputy First Minister would suggest not. If the request was made in any other fashion it calls into question the whole basis on which the meeting took place.

“The committee chair boasted on the BBC that she had ‘no problem’ with publishing the minutes of her meeting with the First Minister. It now transpires that she has no such minutes and that the committee has gone on bended knee to the Executive Office asking if they can see the record made by officials working to the witness.

“Is it also significant that the response to the question about whether the TEO Committee chair discussed or revealed to the First Minister any of the legal advice the committee had received during the meeting is less than fulsome?”

They said “but for Timothy Gaston the public wouldn't even know about the meeting between the chair and the witnesses. No other member of the committee objected to this either on the day of the meeting or since” and questioned what is going on in other committees.