Naomi Long questions cost of TUV Assembly question on day Alliance MLAs submit 34 queries to Stormont ministers

Mrs Long responded: “As you read these questions, bear in mind that each one can cost up to £700 to answer, not to mention deflecting officials away from important delivery for people. They're a crucial part of the democratic process, but they ought not to be abused for party politicking.”

On the same day, the Alliance Party submitted 34 questions to ministers in the Assembly. Using Mrs Long’s figures, this could cost up to £23,000. These included questions to an array of ministers – with five questions each submitted by Alliance MLAs Kellie Armstrong, Sorcha Eastwood, Peter McReynolds, Nick Mathison, Connie Egan and Kate Nicholl. Questions submitted by the party’s MLAs made up over a quarter of the written questions submitted on Tuesday.

These included questions to the Minister of Health to outline his long-term plan for publicly funded dentistry and to the Minister of Education on whether he will resume the Happy Healthy Minds programme.

A TUV spokesperson told the News Letter: “Surely even Alliance supporters can see the dripping hypocrisy in Naomi Long’s position. On the one hand she complains about the questions from Jim Allister on the grounds of cost while she has nothing to say about her own MLAs tabling many multiples of that number of questions on the same day.

“Jim Allister was elected on a platform which made his implacable opposition to the Sea Border crystal clear. While we understand that Alliance have seen others elected on a similar platform abandon their promises and become Protocol implementers, no one should be surprised that Jim Allister has no intention of following their example.”

The Alliance Party told the News Letter: “In her comment, Naomi Long made clear the importance of questions in democratic scrutiny, balanced with the potential cost. The questions submitted by Alliance are clearly about scrutiny and accountability, and as such there is no issue. Others can judge whether that is the case for the questions submitted by Mr Allister."