'There’s your article for tomorrow' - Clip emerges of Bradshaw's dig at Gaston after committee blocks release of notes

Last Wednesday Ms Bradshaw accused Mr Gaston of trying to create a “false narrative” about the committee, saying he had gone “straight to the News Letter” every week to do so. The committee then blocked an attempt by Mr Gaston to obtain contemporaneous notes of a private meeting between the chair and first minister in October.

The clip was in the seconds after Ms Bradshaw ended the meeting, and is not available on the Assembly’s official channels. Ms Bradshaw can be heard saying “there’s your article for tomorrow”.

TUV press officer Sammy Morrison said she should conduct the committee in a way which doesn’t “give the press things to report on”.

MLA Timothy Gaston proposed that the Executive Office committee seek copies of the notes. Although he had the support of the DUP, other parties blocked such a move.

The minutes, leaked to this newspaper the week before, were provided by the Executive Office as part of the FOI request. Neither Ms Bradshaw nor her officials kept any record of the meeting.

That decision was criticised again in the TEO committee – with DUP MLA Brian Kingston describing the minutes released by Michelle O’Neill’s office as a “narrative” – arguing that in future the committee should also take its own notes.

Paula Bradshaw rejected an assertion about the minutes being from the First Minister’s perspective, saying the Executive Office’s record was “bang on”.

Sinn Fein’s Carál Ní Chuilín interpreted Mr Gaston’s proposal as an attempt to help the News Letter with its FOI, rather than for the committee to have further detail. She said the proposal was “bonkers” and it was not the job of MLAs to “do a job for a journalist”.

Paula Bradshaw said the minutes were a “complete record of what happened that day” – and accused Mr Gaston of trying to “frustrate” the committee.

“We’re not here to do the job of the News Letter”, Ms Bradshaw said. “I’m not interested in that, I don’t think there’s anything to be gained from this – all you're trying to do is continually frustrate this committee”, she added.

The deputy chair, Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson, claimed it would “create a very serious chill factor” for a civil servant if their notes were released. He said the committee “have been given in good faith a minute, that minute has been accepted by those who were present at the meeting”.

The Executive Office account of the meeting shows that Michelle O’Neill came to the committee armed with the questions MLAs had sent in advance and attempted to deflect questions about safeguarding onto another department.

The document also reveals that at one stage Ms O’Neill’s top civil servant, the Executive Office permanent secretary, suggested “delaying or postponing the session” and asking MLAs to agree to “hold the meeting in closed session or with the Committee’s legal support present”.

Not only was the committee chair (Ms Bradshaw) invited by the witness (Ms O’Neill) to a private meeting in advance – but the witness had advance questions, prior knowledge of the committee’s legal advice and was able to help set boundaries about the conduct of the meeting.

In response to the News Letter’s FOI request, the first minister’s private office said contemporaneous notes are “being withheld” as they fall under an exemption which they say “relates to the operation of a Ministerial private office”.