The words of the NI Attorney General, John Larkin, in the legal advice given to the Executive in which he firmly indicates grounds for an appeal regarding the outcome of the case taken by Alan Lennon against the then DRD Minister, Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy.
That the UUP Minister who has succeeded Conor Murphy, Danny Kennedy, has decided to ignore not only the advice given to him by the Attorney General, but also a second legal opinion sought from the Bar Library’s Noelle McGrenera QC and Martin Wolfe, is perhaps natural given his political leanings, but it also clearly implicates him on the very grounds of acting in a sectarian manner that his party- and some others- have sought to charge the former Sinn Fein Minister and MP for Newry and Armagh.
From the BBC report:
It has also emerged that a second legal opinion from the Bar Library’s Noelle McGrenera QC and Martin Wolfe, points to “arguable errors of law”.
This opinion sharply criticised the tribunal’s conclusions about Mr Murphy’s credibility and that it reached an “unsubstantiated view”.
It also found the tribunal’s reasoning “puzzling” and “deeply unconvincing” when it concluded the minister had breached the appointments code.
The opinion continued: “No reasonable tribunal properly directing itself could have reached the conclusions that this tribunal reached.”
Oh the irony…..
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