Michael McMonagle: O’Neill ‘aghast’ over job references

After McMonagle was first arrested in August 2021, he informed Sinn Féin and was suspended from his job. Later his contract of employment ended.

He then took up the position in the British Heart Foundation in September 2022.

Ulster Unionist Party assembly member Doug Beattie said the two press officers – Seán Mag Uidhir and Caolán McGinley – were “right to resign” and should never have given the references.

But he said the party had a “moral obligation” to let the British Heart Foundation know about McMonagle’s suspension and investigation.

“I think the problem is the fact of what do Sinn Féin know in regards to McMonagle and what actions should they have taken once they had known that he had applied for a new job?” Beattie said.

“Once they realised that he had actually gotten a job within that charity, and was working with children, they still said nothing.

“I think they need to put their hands up and say ‘we’ve got this one wrong and we’re going to look at it and fix our processes’.

“Doubling down the way they have is not going to help.”