T8. Mrs Erskine asked the Minister for the Economy whether he will apologise directly to the British Heart Foundation, which has been slurred by him in recent media commentary, and to state whether due diligence was carried out internally by his party or in communication with the British Heart Foundation, in light of his interview with the BBC, in which he incorrectly said that he had had no contact with Mr McMonagle after his suspension and that he did not know what he was doing or anything more about him, albeit Sinn Féin's head of HR was aware. (AQT 628/22-27)

First, the foundation has not been slurred by me. Secondly, although a person was informed, we learned of that only last Thursday. The party leadership, which was responsible for dealing with Mr McMonagle, was not aware of his movements, engagements or employment after he was suspended from our party.

We were not aware that two people had given him references until the Wednesday before our ard-fheis, which was at the end of September, and we were not aware until last Thursday that that had been verified by a person from HR.

Corporately, the party, which was dealing with the issue, was not aware of any of the actions of any of those three people. Therefore, we were not in a position to advise the British Heart Foundation of any matter in relation to his employment. That has been put out by the First Minister as a matter of record, and I concur with it. I also concur with all her sentiments in relation to the British Heart Foundation and those of my party president.

Minister, I asked this: will you directly apologise to the British Heart Foundation?

If she had listened to my previous answers, she would find that I have done so directly. I am happy to repeat it for her so that she can understand. I apologise for not engaging in all the facts in relation to the due diligence issues that we talked about in some of the interviews. Had I known all the facts, I certainly would not have made those comments.

That concludes questions to the Minister for the Economy. Members may take their ease for a moment before we resume our business.

(Madam Principal Deputy Speaker in the Chair)