McCrea seeks urgent answer from OFMDFM on possible breach of Ministerial Code by Ruane
Ulster Unionist Education Spokesman Basil McCrea has asked for an urgent answer from OFMDFM as to whether Minister Ruane broke the Ministerial code when she presented her statement on Education without taking it to the Executive. Mr McCrea has received Ministerial confirmation from across departments that Ministers were not consulted on the statement.
After it emerged that Sammy Wilson from the DUP thanked the Minister for advanced notice of the statement, Mr McCrea also said the matter re-inforced the need for a meaningful coalition, not a carve-up between the two parties.
In a statement Mr McCrea said,
“Remember the row over Margaret Ritchie’s decisions on the CTI money? Only last week Minister Ruane decided to ignore the Executive and press ahead with a statement on education. This illustrates the double standard that the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP were referring to in October. There is clearly one law within the Executive for Sinn Fein and another for the SDLP.
I saw no evidence of Ministers jumping from the front benches to the back benches to challenge Caitriona Ruane on her statement, which by any reading of the Ministerial Code was well out of order (her statement being both cross-cutting as well as signigficant). But on an issue as important to the community as education, and the post primary aspect of it in particular, how can it be that Ministers in a government only hear about this either on radio or receive an e-mail a few minutes before the statement is delivered, yet Sammy Wilson can thank the Minister for Education for advance notice?
I have asked for and will receive in the next couple of days an answer from OFMDFM as to whether the Education Minister acted in a manner that breached the Ministerial Code. I believe she has.”