Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Police considering Covid grants probe
POLICE are considering a request to investigate issues around the mistaken payment of Covid relief funds.
Three Sinn Fein activists resigned after it emerged there was a delay in repaying unsolicited £10,000 grants which were wrongly paid into party accounts.
MP and MLA constituency offices were not eligible for the Small Business Support Grant Scheme announced by Economy Minister Diane Dodds earlier this year.
However, payments were sent automatically to any firm in receipt of Small Business Rate Relief.
Of 24,700 grants paid out, 2% (452) may not have been eligible.
The department has since recouped 70 of those payments and work is under way to recover all ineligible payments.
The grants paid into the Sinn Fein accounts were not paid back until earlier this week.
In the case of one account, the party said a West Tyrone official “who had responsibility for the administration of the account and failed to promptly return the grant money despite being requested to do so” by MLA Maoliosa Mchugh had resigned.
Sinn Fein president Mary Lou Mcdonald said the “failure to immediately return grants erroneously paid into Sinn Fein accounts is a most serious situation”. Three activists including former Foyle MP Elisha Mccallion and officials in Upper Bann and West Tyrone resigned. In a separate statement, Ms Mccallion said: “I fully accept that as a named signature on the account that I should have taken extra steps to verify this situation before it was brought to my attention on Tuesday.
“I apologise unreservedly for the poor judgement I showed in relation to this.
“I spoke to the party leader and tendered my resignation as a member of Seanad Eireann with immediate effect.” Meanwhile the DUP is investigating whether a landlord it rents a constituency office from received the Covid relief cash. Leader Arlene Foster said: “If a landlord received money it shouldn’t have, then it should be returned, and if it hasn’t, the Department of Finance should pursue that money.”
DUP MLA Gary Middleton has written to PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne to ask police to investigate if “a potential offence” may have been committed.
He said: “Police need to examine if failure to return these grants for almost seven months - especially if it was a conscious decision on the part of those involved – constituted a criminal offence.”
A PSNI spokeswoman said: “We are considering the matter as to whether a criminal investigation is required.”