Sinn Féin South Down MLA Ennis calls on Assembly Speaker to stand aside in the wake of the Jeffrey Donaldson case
Sinn Féin MLA Sinéad Ennis has called on the Assembly Speaker Edwin Poots to stand aside pending the full disclosure of all issues and any knowledge of the inappropriate behaviour of Jeffrey Donaldson within the DUP.
The party’s Chief Whip said: “Revelations over recent days that members of the DUP, including the Assembly Speaker Edwin Poots, had knowledge of the exploitation of a young woman by the now convicted paedophile Jeffrey Donaldson raises serious questions for the DUP.
“Even if we accept that there were no criminal or safeguarding issues, and that remains to be seen; there was clearly knowledge of inappropriate behaviour by Donaldson, which, according to the current DUP leader, was not passed to the party officers.
“The result of this is that these issues were not raised or dealt with, even as the DUP elevated Donaldson to the leadership of the DUP, effectively Donaldson’s behaviour was ignored, and in terms of this assembly, it raises serious questions for Edwin Poots as Assembly Speaker.
“This is at best a gross misjudgement by the Speaker, at worst it is a fundamental and disastrous moral failure.
“The bottom line here is that a dangerous paedophile went unchallenged, and worse still, and despite clear and knowing red flags, he was elected leader of the DUP.
“On that basis, I am calling for the speaker to now stand aside pending the full disclosure of all of the issues and any and all knowledge of them within the DUP about inappropriate behaviour before and during Donaldson’s time as DUP leader.”
The Jeffrey Donaldson case has the potential to change the face of politics at Parliament Buildings as the DUP are reeling in its wake.
Revelations about Jeffrey Donaldson’s conduct have emerged into the public domain and the DUP have called for an independent inquiry into his conduct in order to protect the reputation of party members and the political process.
Even just after the All-Party Talks held at Castle Buildings at Stormont in the mid-90 there were rumours of Donaldson’s conduct which has now come to the surface decades later later.
It begs the question, are the scrutiny systems in place sufficient to protect the political process, the public, and the victims of paedophilia and sex abuse from further harm ?
