Stormont quietly changed funeral law just 48 hours after Michelle O’Neill breach

The legislation which the deputy First Minister and other Executive ministers endorsed at the start of lockdown made clear that only a tiny handful of people could attend a funeral.

The public were only permitted to travel for limited reasons, one of which was to attend a funeral.

However, it only allowed that if the deceased was a member of one’s household, a close family member, or – if neither a member of the person’s household nor close family members are attending, then attendance at a friend’s funeral was permitted.

Last week many of those who attended the former IRA intelligence chief’s funeral were not members of his family. However, members of the Storey family were present, meaning that other individuals could not avail of the ability to be there if no family member could be present.

Some lawyers believe that other aspects of the unwieldy regulations make their enforcement impossible, and yesterday Ms O’Neill repeated her happiness to speak to the PSNI if they investigate her over the funeral, something which may indicate that she believes she cannot be prosecuted for breaching the clumsily-worded regulations.

By contrast, it is abundantly clear that the funeral broke at least nine aspects of the Executive’s public health guidance – guidance which when others did not adhere to it led to Ms O’Neill admonishing them that they were “killing people”.

Ms O’Neill insists the funeral broke neither the law nor her guidance.

However, at 5.45pm last Thursday – two days after Mr Storey’s funeral, and amid huge controversy over senior Sinn Fein figures’ attendance at that event – the Department of Health made The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Amendment No. 10) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020, the latest in multiple updates to the regulations as lockdown is eased.

That legislation removed regulation 5 (2) g of the original lockdown regulations in which the restriction on who can attend a funeral was contained.

However, while that means that the prohibition on most people attending funerals has now been removed, many people will be unaware of the change – because Stormont did not publicise it.

The highly technical legislation was simply placed on the Department of Health’s website, with no explanatory press release from the Executive or statement from an Executive minister.

Even in the Assembly yesterday, as other aspects of the easing of lockdown were debated, no minister highlighted that the law had been changed in this way.

It may be that the cancellation of the Executive’s regular public health press conferences – after Arlene Foster said that she would not stand beside an unapologetic Ms O’Neill while giving the public advice which she was not following – contributed to Stormont’s failure to tell the public what it had done.

Some members of the public may have heard of the change through their undertaker, but anyone wanting to reassure themselves that such advice was correct and that they were following the law would find nothing – other than the complex legislation itself – on government or media websites which would back up what the undertaker was saying.

Even though the legislation applies immediately when it is published by the department, it does not receive scrutiny by the Assembly until much later because it has been designated as emergency legislation.

MLAs must debate the regulations within 28 days of them being made. That is why MLAs were yesterday debating and giving retrospective approval to previous legislation easing some of the lockdown provisions, which had been made in the same way.

The News Letter asked the Department of Health and The Executive Office why it had changed the law without any announcement to inform the public.

The Department of Health said that Stormont Castle would respond on its behalf.

In a statement The Executive Office said: “The amendment to the regulations was published on the Department of Health website and Junior Ministers wrote to faith leaders at the weekend to make them aware of the changes.”

Cross-party call for apology to be debated

This evening MLAs will debate a cross-party motion calling on Michelle O’Neill and Conor Murphy to apologise for their actions at the funeral last week.

The motion – in the names of MLAs from the DUP, UUP, SDLP and Alliance – will not in itself force Ms O’Neill from office, but emphasises Sinn Fein’s isolation on the issue.

The motion “expresses disappointment in the actions of those in ministerial office who breached public guidance and failed to share in the sacrifice that we have asked of others” and “calls on the deputy first minister and the minister of finance to apologise for their actions, which have caused immense hurt”.

First Minister Arlene Foster, who endorsed the motion yesterday, said that the funeral had been turned into a political rally and added that Belfast City Council had questions to answer about Mr Storey’s cremation.

The DUP leader said of the motion: “It allows the Assembly its place in terms of what is going on. It allows the Assembly members to ask the question that people have been asking them.”

She said bereaved constituents were angry, upset and distressed because they could not have what they considered to be proper funerals for their loved ones yet Ms O’Neill and others were able to attend a funeral of such significant magnitude.

Mrs Foster asked why the cortege proceeded to Milltown cemetery in west Belfast when Mr Storey’s remains were being cremated in east Belfast. She added: “It did turn into a political rally.”

She said Belfast City Council should explain why 30 people were allowed to attend Mr Storey’s cremation. “Nobody else was allowed that. There are a lot of questions to be answered and we will be pursuing this through our group at Belfast City Council.”

However, TUV leader Jim Allister – who had attempted to get the Assembly to debate a no-confidence motion in Ms O’Neill – said that today’s motion is “pathetically weak”.

He said that it “limply makes a plaintiff call for apology – with the deputy first minister having defiantly said she will ‘never apologise’. It is plain to me that this motion – which I was not asked to sign – was primarily designed to protect ‘the process’”.

PSNI haven’t spoken to me: Deputy First Minister

Michelle O’Neill has said she has not been contacted by police following the Bobby Storey funeral.

Police are investigating whether breaches of the coronavirus regulations occurred, but Ms O’Neill has made clear she believes that any such investigation will clear her.

Yesterday Ms O’Neill was summoned to the Assembly to face an urgent oral question from TUV leader Jim Allister, who asked Ms O’Neill if she had a “higher loyalty” to republicanism than to the law.

He asked: “The law, as far as last Tuesday’s funeral was concerned, was unmistakably clear: there only could be attendees from the household and the close family of the deceased.

“The deputy First Minister then compounded that breach by arrogantly declaring that she would never apologise for attending the funeral of a friend.”

Ms O’Neill said that “always at the forefront of my mind are all the families who are grieving and all those who have lost loved ones throughout the course of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Ms O’Neill repeatedly responded to hostile questions from around the chamber by saying “I take my responsibilities very seriously” and made clear that she would not be resigning.

The Sinn Fein deputy vice-president largely repeated what she had said on Friday, apologising for the fact that some grieving families had been hurt – but refusing to accept that she had done anything wrong which had caused that hurt.

She told MLAs: “I would never intentionally hurt anyone, I would never compound any family’s grief and I said I was sorry for that.”

Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin said he hopes the controversy over Mr Storey’s funeral does not “rumble on”.

Speaking in Dublin, he insisted Ms O’Neill’s comments were “sincerely made and sincerely felt”.

——— ———

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Alistair Bushe

Editor