Sam McBride: Five things we learned at the Stormont Assembly this week (but you probably missed)

Melissa, Maolíosa

At the Finance Committee yesterday, Sinn Féin MLAs expended considerable energy attempting to close down discussion of Maolíosa McHugh’s failure to declare that £10,000 of a covid grant had been wrongly paid into an account linked to him - and then not paid back until the Nolan Show started asking questions.

UUP leader Steve Aiken, began by asking MLAs to declare any interests. Mr McHugh, a member of the committee, said nothing and Dr Aiken revealed that before coming to the committee yesterday he had “raised a complaint with the commissioner of standards about a member of our committee who was in receipt of a small business grant loan – or his office was in receipt of a small business grant loan – and had made no declaration of that interest even though we had Land and Property Services (LPS) [who paid the grant] in front of us three times...”

Sinn Féin’s Philip McGuigan argued that the issue should not be discussed because it was not on the agenda and tried to get the unelected Assembly clerk to “rule” on the issue. Mr McHugh said there was an implication that he had not acted openly and transparently, something which he said “is not the case”

He then said “that Nolan programme, its guests that were on it – within this committee, even – much of that is subject to legal considerations and I think that the clerk of this committee should give clarity on that point as well” – although that stopped well short of saying that he would be issuing a writ for libel.

SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole said it was “entirely legitimate” to ask questions about what had gone on and that “the principle that we’re allowed to talk about this has to be upheld”.

The committee agreed to invite LPS to the committee to answer questions.  But as the fractious discussion drew to a close Mr McHugh raised another issue, telling Dr Aiken: “My name’s not Melissa – and Nolan keeps calling me the same – and I’m here now long enough for you to know my name is Maolíosa; a very different name in every respect.”

Leaderless no longer?

The deputy First Minister has indicated that an interim head of the civil service could finally be appointed within days – after more than two months in which the civil service had been leaderless.

Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill left advertising the post until July, despite having known since last December that David Sterling was retiring as their top official – and then they rejected every candidate.

In response, the ministers said they would make an “interim” appointment for a year while reviewing the role – although the process of selecting the interim appointee remains unclear, with no clarity on the role of the DUP and Sinn Féin, nor whether prospective candidates can apply for the job or wait to be approached.

Questioned by UUP MLA Rosemary Barton, Ms O’Neill told the Assembly that “we hope to be able to say something positive about that in the next number of days”.

Unelected, but powerful

The RHI Inquiry revealed to the wider public what most Stormont observers had long known – most real power in the DUP and Sinn Féin resides not among elected MLAs, but among unelected spads and party officials.

In the wake of the inquiry, the power behind the DUP leader’s throne, Timothy Johnston, did not return to Stormont Castle as a spad.

However, TUV leader Jim Allister, whose use of written Assembly questions to pry information out of departments is renowned, has established that Mr Johnston remains involved in one of the biggest policy issues facing the Executive.

Mrs Foster has named Mr Johnston, now the DUP chief executive, along with former North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds, as the designated party figures who can receive Executive papers on Brexit.

Interestingly, despite the RHI Inquiry having revealed the key role of unelected senior republicans in Sinn Féin’s decision-making structures, there is no mention of them – with MP Chris Hazzard and MLA Caoimhe Archibald the nominated persons.

Cad é deifir?

The DUP’s refusal to accept an Irish language act was said by Sinn Féin to have been a key reason why they would not return to Stormont for three years. Yet now, after the DUP agreed to such legislation in January, there seems to be no great hurry in implementing it.

Questioned by SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone, Michelle O’Neill told him that the pandemic had “delayed the speed at which we would have liked to see these issues progress” – even though the legislation has been finished since January and the Executive has been introducing other legislation during the pandemic. Eleven months after Stormont’s return, Ms O’Neill promised that there will be “not be a moment wasted” in introducing the legislation which was finished at that point.

Taxing carry-outs

During a debate on reforming the alcohol licensing system, Sinn Fein’s John O’Dowd liberally wandered into several related areas.

The Upper Bann MLA suggested that self-service tills in shops such as supermarkets should be done away with “because they do away with jobs and do away with socialisation”.

But he also made the interesting suggestion that if government wants to encourage drinking in the regulated environment of pubs rather than in homes, “I favour a method of having higher taxation on off-licences and perhaps lowering the taxation on bars in order to shift that trend” – although he accepted that was beyond Stormont’s powers.

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