Education minister Paul Givan receives fresh invite to Israel - after attempts to oust him over previous visit
Stormont’s education minister has received another invite to Israel, after a previous visit prompted a political row at Stormont – resulting in an attempt to remove him from office.
Paul Givan’s top official at the Department of Education told MLAs that the minister had received an invite to attend a conference there in recent days.
This week, Sinn Fein, Alliance, the SDLP and People Before Profit backed a motion to oust Mr Givan from office for the maximum period of 12 months.
They claimed that he should not have used departmental resources to promote a visit to a school in Jerusalem – and slammed his decision to visit the country in the light of the war in Gaza.
The attempt failed as it did not have cross-community backing – with unionist parties opposing the attempt to censure the DUP man.
On Wednesday, Ronnie Armour – permanent secretary of the education department – told MLAs that a new invite had been received “within the last couple of days”. He said that while he understands “the sensitivities of what has gone on in Israel and in Gaza on both sides” – it was not his role to make a “moral judgement” about the previous Israel trip.
The education minister travelled to the Middle East alongside other DUP figures, and representatives from the Ulster Unionist Party and the TUV. The UK delegation also included Welsh politicians, and was funded by the Israeli government.
On Monday, a majority of MLAs voted to remove Mr Givan from office, but because of cross-community voting requirements, the motion failed without unionist support.
That prompted calls from Stormont’s official opposition to change the rules. SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole claimed the issue had shown a “crisis in accountability” – which he said threatened the future of the institutions.
Nationalists and Alliance voted to reform the system – something the UUP said “sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the very protections that underpin power sharing”. John Stewart MLA said any attempt to “dilute” protections, especially “in the face of a pan nationalist front should be something of concern for Unionists”.