SDLP MID-Ulster MLA Patsy McGlone
SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone has said the scandal of Sinn Fein coaching the prominent loyalist Jamie Bryson ahead of his appearance at the Finance Committee’s NAMA investigation was a “cynical disregard for the democratic processes of government”.
It was revealed yesterday that the Sinn Fein chair of the Fianance Committee set up a back door channel for Bryson with one of his party workers to ‘coach’ him on his evidence on the NAMA loan book sale.
Tweets revealed SF worker Thomas O’Hara telling Bryson how to present his evidence and when to drop Peter Robinson’s name into oral testimony.
McKay resigned yesterday and was immediately suspended by the party.
Mid Ulster MLA Patsy McGlone said: “If these claims about Sinn Fein secretly working with a prominent loyalist to target the DUP – their partners in government – are correct, they expose the utter shallowness of the purported Fresh Start agreement and demonstrate a cynical disregard for the democratic processes of government.
“Given the culture of control that surrounds Sinn Fein, it is inconceivable that on a senior level it had no knowledge of what was going on.
“The public will have no confidence that a single MLA and a party worker were working independently on an issue as serious as this.
“This does nothing to detract from the fact that the DUP have substantial questions to answer over the NAMA investigation, but Sinn Fein now also have their own very serious questions to answer and they go right to the heart of the integrity of the government.”
