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Sinn Féin Senator Elisha McCallion resigns over coronavirus grant scandal

Sinn Féin Senator Elisha McCallion has resigned her position over her failure to return an erron...
Michael Staines
Michael Staines

15.13 29 Oct 2020


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Sinn Féin Senator Elisha McCal...

Sinn Féin Senator Elisha McCallion resigns over coronavirus grant scandal

Michael Staines
Michael Staines

15.13 29 Oct 2020


Share this article


Sinn Féin Senator Elisha McCallion has resigned her position over her failure to return an erroneously paid coronavirus grant in the North.

The Derry native served as an abstentionist Sinn Féin MP between 2017 and 2019 before her election to the Seanad earlier this year.

Sinn Féin has faced intense criticism in recent days after it emerged that three of its offices in the North had wrongly received a £10,000 (€11,070) grant under the Covid-19 Small Business Support Scheme.

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The party said the grants were ‘unsolicited’ and had since been repaid; however, the party was criticised for taking months to return the funds.

Sinn Féin

In a statement this afternoon, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she had accepted the resignations of three party members responsible for the accounts the grants were paid into – Senator Elisha McCallion, the Chair of Upper Bann Comhairle Ceantair and a party official in West Tyrone.

“The failure to immediately return grants erroneously paid into Sinn Féin accounts is a most serious situation,” she said.

“As party leader I wish to acknowledge and apologise for these failures.”

In a statement, Ms McCallion said she had also tendered her resignation as a member of Seanad Éireann “with immediate effect.”

“I did not apply for nor solicit this money, nor did I receive any correspondence form the department in relation to it,” she said.

#“I full accept that as a name signature on the account that I should have taken extra steps to verify this situation before it was brought to my attention on Tuesday.

“The money was repaid in full on Tuesday.”

Coronavirus grant

This afternoon, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said Sinn Féin has questions to answer over the scandal.

“Sinn Féin have questions to answer around why they waited seven months to hand the money back, whether Conor Murphy as Finance Minister knew about it and what the SF leadership knew and when,” he wrote.

“£30,000 of public money rested in SF's bank accounts while businesses and workers struggled.”

Deputy McDonald all three grants were repaid in full on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

“These monies should have been returned immediately as no political offices qualified for this grant,” she said.

“The fact that this did not happen is unacceptable.

“The party has established in each case where responsibility lay for the administration of the accounts in question and for the reimbursement of these monies.

“The Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle met last night and censured all those involved. Last night I accepted the resignation of Senator Elisha McCallion. She accepts full responsibility for the failure to return the grant immediately.”

She said the party had also accepted the resignation of the party official in West Tyrone who “had responsibility for the administration of the account and failed to promptly return the grant money despite being requested to do so by Maolíosa McHugh.”

The Cathaoirleach of the Upper Bann Comhairle Ceantair has also resigned in recognition of his “failure to return the grant payment in a timely fashion.”

"Serious situation"

“The Small Business Grant scheme was established to support struggling businesses in times of extraordinary hardship,” said Deputy McDonald.

“The failure to immediately return grants erroneously paid into Sinn Féin accounts is a most serious situation.

“As party leader I wish to acknowledge and apologise for these failures.”


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