Member's statement: Jeffrey Donaldson: Questions for the DUP
Member's statement by Mrs Sinéad Ennis on .
- MLA
- Mrs Sinéad Ennis
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 30 June 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Jeffrey Donaldson: Questions for the DUP
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5652734
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The revelation over recent days that members of the DUP, including the Assembly Speaker, Edwin Poots, had knowledge of the exploitation of a young woman by the now convicted paedophile Jeffrey Donaldson raises serious questions for the DUP. Even if we accept that there were no criminal or safeguarding issues — and that remains to be seen — there was clearly knowledge of inappropriate behaviour by Donaldson that, according to the current DUP leader, was not passed to the party officers. The result is that those issues were not raised or dealt with, even as the DUP elevated Donaldson to leadership of the party. In effect, Donaldson's behaviour was ignored. That raises serious questions for Edwin Poots as Assembly Speaker. At best, it was a gross misjudgement by the Speaker; at worst, it was a fundamental and disastrous moral failure. The bottom line here is that a dangerous paedophile went unchallenged and, worse still and despite clear, known red flags, was elected leader of the DUP. On that basis, I call for the Speaker to stand aside, pending full disclosure of all the issues and any and all knowledge within the DUP of inappropriate behaviour before and during Donaldson's time as DUP leader.
203 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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