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Harris: Sinn Féin willingness to appoint advisers with criminal convictions ‘astonishing’
Simon Harris has said suggestions that Sinn Féin would appoint someone with criminal convictions to a Government adviser role are ‘astonishing’ and will ‘weigh’ on voters’ minds.
He also dismissed suggestions that Sinn Féin will win the next election as he warned that ‘Mary Lou for Taoiseach hoodies’ may end up unused like the infamous ‘Eamon Gilmore for Taoiseach’ mugs produced by the former Labour leader in 2011.
Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy and Eoin Ó Broin both said this week that they would appoint people with prior convictions to government adviser roles if the party were to win the next general election.
Both stressed they were talking about people who were convicted during the Troubles. They said the Good Friday Agreement gave people an opportunity to move into peaceful protest.
When asked about the comments on Thursday, Higher Education Minister Mr Harris said the suggestion was ‘astonishing’.
He said that Government advisers deal with ‘sensitive information’. He asked: ‘Would they be an adviser in the Department of Justice? Would they be an adviser in the Department of Defence? Would they be an adviser in the Department of Foreign Affairs?
‘This is quite an astonishing thing, that the main opposition party, a party which wishes to lead the government of this country, is not willing to say clearly that it does not believe hiring people with criminal convictions to take up sensitive roles in government is something that should be ruled out,’ he said.
‘I’m sure these are issues that will weigh on the people of the country’s minds when they decide what form of government do they want, what policies do they want and the standards of people within that government, and political advisers as well.’
When asked whether such an issue should still be relevant more than 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement that ended the conflict in the North, Mr Harris said that he was worried about the future and not the past.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee has said that she was working with Senator Lynn Ruane on spent convictions that would allow someone who ‘had convictions in the past a second chance or an opportunity to progress their lives’.
Mr Carthy said earlier this week that he thought the question, asked by RTÉ’s Claire Byrne, was ‘silly’.
‘It relates to former political prisoners,’ he argued. ‘These are people who were released under the Good Friday Agreement that was signed in 1998.
Most of them are probably reaching pension age now. I don’t think it’s an issue that’s going to arise.
He said: ‘I wouldn’t support what is a discriminatory proposal that would suggest that because somebody is a former political prisoner, they can’t play an important role in terms of the political discourse on this island.’
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman Mr Ó Broin said that if he was a minister, he would want the ‘best possible advice’ and ‘whether or not somebody has a history of being involved in conflict-related activities during the conflict in the North won’t be relevant to me’.
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