Questions over Justice Minister's overnight wait to clear up £119m PSNI data breach compensation fund mistake: Northern Ireland kept in the dark until interview recorded yesterday afternoon went out this morning
Questions are being asked over why Justice Minister Naomi Long and her officials stayed silent overnight, waiting for the broadcast of a pre-recorded radio interview this morning, instead of clearing up her £119m compensation fund mistake straight away.
After incorrectly announcing the fund was agreed and ready to go on yesterday’s edition of the Stephen Nolan show, the minister didn’t explain the true situation until this morning’s episode – roughly 24 hours after her error went out live.
But according to Stephen Nolan himself, the explanatory interview with Mrs Long was recorded yesterday afternoon.
As UUP MLA Doug Beattie puts it, that means neither she nor her officials clarified the truth overnight, despite knowing the wrong information was being circulated because of her mistake, and instead waited for the taped Nolan interview to air.
Yesterday afternoon the News Letter was attempting to get the Department of Justice to explain what was going on; none of our initial questions were answered, and follow-up communication was ignored.
Today the department also didn’t answer questions on why they stayed silent, or why the minister kept Northern Ireland in the dark overnight despite having already recorded a full explanation for broadcast the following morning.
Mr Beattie now wants to know why Mrs Long didn’t come clean right away, despite obviously realising she’d got it wrong.
“Instead of releasing a statement immediately,” he said, “she held back, attempted to control the media narrative, and gave a pre-recorded interview that was not to air until the next morning.
"No thought was given to police officers and their families, or a Chief Constable desperately trying to maintain morale. This was a poor response.”