Which charities got Ruane donations?

INHERENT within Sinn Fein’s battle cry of “an equal and just society” are the principles of openness and transparency.

Leave aside the surreal arrangements by which former MLA Caitriona Ruane was paid a full MLA’s salary and allowances for her non-role as a Principal Deputy Speaker of the non-existent Assembly; the question remains as to why (like Danny Kennedy), she did not immediately resign as Principal Deputy Speaker as soon as she decided not to stand as an MLA?

We won’t get a logical answer to that; there isn’t one.

We are told the money paid did not benefit Ms Ruane, but was donated instead to a range of organisations and charities. I trust she had the principle of equality uppermost in her mind and that her largesse with public money was truly cross-community.

The amount Ms Ruane was paid up to her resignation, less deductions, is a matter of record. Let Ms Ruane now also publish alongside this a list of the organisations and charities she supported to show the total amount distributed.

Also, were those organisations aware these sums came from public money?

In these circumstances, are these recipients happy to keep these donations?

Or will they distance themselves from Ms Ruane’s generosity with public funds? NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR