“There’s nothing to sweep under the carpet. I have been transparent with all of this, I have not held any information back” – that’s what Paula Bradshaw, the chairperson of Stormont’s Executive Office committee told MLAs last month.

She was responding to questions from Timothy Gaston about correspondence relating to a controversial private meeting held before Michelle O’Neill gave evidence. Emails had been released to committee members which did not include timestamps – a point raised by the TUV MLA.

Ms Bradshaw told him she had asked the assistant clerk why the times had been removed, and said: “I have no role in terms of what goes out in the committee packs, no role at all. The clerk does not work to me. I do not see the information before it is sent out … so the fact that it went out without a date stamp has nothing to do with me.”

However, Ms Bradshaw was given the same information as every other MLA. Part of that was a timeline, produced by assembly officials, detailing official correspondence between the first minister and herself.

placeholder image — Paula Bradshaw told Stormont's Executive Office committee last month: "I have been transparent with all of this, I have not held any information back". Now, a text message exchange with the First Minister has emerged, which wasn't listed in a timeline provided to MLAs about the lead up to a controversial private meeting.

That included 12 individual communications – including emails, texts, phone calls and meetings – all involving officials. There was no mention of her text messages or an unanswered phone call from the first minister which have subsequently come to light after a Freedom of Information request from the News Letter.

Ms Bradshaw has accused Mr Gaston of trying to create a “false narrative” about her handling of the committee – if that was the case, the Alliance politician has made it easy for him.

First, there was her promise that minutes of a private meeting existed and would be published. It then transpired that the committee kept no record of it, and was reliant on the account of the first minister’s officials – an account DUP MLA Brian Kingston described as a “narrative” in itself.

Then the chair opposed the committee seeking a copy of handwritten, contemporaneous notes of the meeting – saying MLAs weren’t there “to do the job of the News Letter”.

Today, Ms Bradshaw will have to explain why her own text messages weren’t part of the timeline provided to the committee she leads.