By Gráinne Ní Aodha and Rebecca Black, PA
First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said Mary Lou McDonald’s leadership of Sinn Féin was not in doubt as the party continues to grapple with several scandals.
Ms McDonald gave details to the Dáil chamber on Tuesday of how Sinn Féin handled various complaints in relation to party members that came to light.
She has come under pressure to answer what level of detail she and her party knew about the controversies and whether the party processes are as robust as possible.
“No, there are no questions over Mary Lou McDonald’s leadership,” Ms O’Neill told reporters on Wednesday.
The Sinn Féin vice president said that everything the party knows “is now on the public record” and pledged that she would be as “transparent and open” as possible.
Asked about the issue, deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said that while “the grubbiness” of the controversies needs to be addressed, she indicated the powersharing institutions were not at risk.
She said that Ms O’Neill and Sinn Féin “need to step up and be absolutely transparent and honest”.
“Ultimately, this isn’t a crisis of the institutions. It’s a crisis within Sinn Féin,” the deputy First Minister said.
“Sinn Féin need to get their house in order. No organisation should be operating with a cloak of secrecy.
“We are not, and nor should there be, criminal organisations which have some sort of a code of silence. We need to step up and show that transparency, the grubbiness of this needs to be addressed, the serious questions need to be answered.”
Ms O’Neill said that she had answered questions in the Assembly chamber and before a committee, and would “continue in that vein”.
Asked whether Ms O’Neill should again address issues in the Assembly, Ms Little-Pengelly said: “I think that there are mechanisms there to hold people to account.
“I know that right across that Assembly chamber, there are many people who are seriously concerned about the issues of safeguarding of children.
“We’ve had a number of big inquiries in Northern Ireland. We’re still working on a number of those investigations and inquiries through the Executive office and, therefore, it is even more important that we do step up and show example.”
She also said: “If there’s one thing that we have learned right across Northern Ireland, and indeed right across Ireland, is this idea of cover-ups or not being truthful, the lack of transparency when it comes to the safeguarding of children is deeply unacceptable.
“We are supposed to have learned the lessons from the past in terms of some of those issues, and now it is really important that everybody steps up with full transparency, absolutely honestly and transparently answers the most serious questions.”
Ms O’Neill defended her party’s handling of the complaint against former senator and ex-Belfast mayor Niall O Donnghaile, who resigned from the party and Seanad after allegedly sending inappropriate texts to a teenager.
Ms O’Neill said that there was “complete due diligence” in how the party handled the case.
“Mary Lou has set out very categorically everything that we knew and when we knew it in the Dáil statement yesterday,” she said.
“She set out in terms of the internal party processes that we went through. I’m very confident that we had complete due diligence in terms of how we handled that case.
“She’s also set out in terms of the aftermath of that, the fact that there were no criminal proceedings brought against Niall O’Donnghaile himself, and we were very conscious in terms of legal advice that was sought, in terms of naming the individual himself.
“I think that we can confidently stand over the approach that we took to that.
“As I said, from day one we’ve set out to try to be as transparent as we can in terms of setting out all of the facts. I’ve done that in the Assembly chamber last week, Mary Lou did it again yesterday in the Dail, and that remains our approach.
“We’ve always wanted to be as frank as we possibly can with everybody and answer all the questions that people have put to us.”
She also indicated that there were “no other” cases of party members who are suspended or under investigation.
“But there certainly are no other terms of other cases that we are currently engaged in, so just to be very clear about that.”
