Publish terms of reference for McMonagle salaries and expenses probe - TUV's Gaston

​In a statement to the News Letter the NI Assembly reiterated its position that it would not provide a “running commentary” on the matter.

However, the North Antrim MLA, who sits on Stormont’s Executive Office committee, says that basic information about the remit of the investigation needs to be made public.

Timothy Gaston told the News Letter: “No one is asking the Assembly Commission to provide a running commentary on a live investigation.

“It is reasonable, however, to both request and expect to be published the terms of reference to which the investigation is working.

“What questions has the Chief Executive been asked to explore? Will she, for example, look into how many days a week McMonagle worked in Ms O'Neill's office?

“Will Ms O'Neill be interviewed? Will Philip McGuigan be asked why he didn't cancel McMonagle's pass until long after Sinn Fein knew he was accused of child sex offences?

“There is no reason why the terms of reference cannot be published now.

“Furthermore, we do not know the time scale to which the investigation is working. Has the Chief Executive been set a deadline to report back to the Commission? When will her findings be published?

“There is an awful lot about this process which would benefit from transparency.”

Asked for an update on its probe, an Assembly Spokesperson said: “The Clerk/Chief Executive is awaiting the outcome of a review into the initial examination of these matters, to enable her to consider the evidence gathered thus far and determine the nature of any further work or action required.

“However, the Assembly Commission has also been clear that it will not be providing a running commentary on the detail of this process while it is continuing”.

Very little detail about what the probe entails has been released to the public – despite repeated questions from the media and Mr Gaston over recent weeks.