Deputy FM distances herself from ‘attempts to blame other organisations’

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly has distanced herself from Sinn Fein’s “attempts to blame other organisations” in the fallout around their sex offender former employee Michael McMonagle.

She was questioned during Executive Office questions in the Stormont Assembly on Monday.

McMonagle, who admitted child sex offences last month, was suspended by Sinn Fein in 2021 and went on to work for the British Heart Foundation in 2022 who questioned why they had not been informed he was under investigation.

Fearghal McKinney, head of the BHF in Northern Ireland, said charity workers were dismayed when senior Sinn Fein members appeared to question their due diligence in relation to the recruitment.

DUP MLA Peter Martin said with the Executive Office leading on issues including victims and safeguarding, in light of revelations around McMonagle across the last week, how can victims of abuse be confident that ministers act at all times in the interest of openness and transparency, and in the interests of victims.

Ms Little-Pengelly said there are “serious questions for Sinn Fein to answer”.

“It’s very clear that there are a number of questions to be answered. I can only speak in this respect in my personal capacity, but I would encourage them to do so in a very open and transparent way,” she told MLAs.

She referred to the Executive Office’s involvement with probes into historical institutional abuse and former mother and baby homes, adding that those failings were related to child safeguarding.

“That is what our primary focus must be. Lessons must be learned from that and those lessons from the findings are around openness, about candour, about honesty, about not moving the problem on to someone else. It is about taking responsibility,” she told MLAs.

“Those are all core, a huge part of that work, the reason for it, is to learn those lessons.

“There are serious questions about the current situation that have to be answered and as leaders we have to be honest and we have to be credible, and I think very many people out there will feel it has simply not been credible thus far and therefore I urge the people involved to be open and honest and credible on this matter.”

Ms Little-Pengelly added that she wanted to distance herself from attempts to “put the blame on other organisations”.

“I also would want to put on record that I want to distance myself from any comments in relation to trying to put the blame of this on to other organisations, particularly the charity involved in this, the British Heart Foundation,” she said.

“I know the charity, they do a huge amount of good work. This is an issue where responsibility must be taken and I hope that there will be very clear openness and honesty about this issue.”