Trade union NIPSA defends civil servants after Alliance MLA accuses officials of 'misogyny'

The union’s comments came after the communities minister Gordon Lyons asked Kellie Armstrong to apologise for the allegation – which she made during a Stormont committee.

The Strangford MLA also accused civil servants of a failure to deliver on strategies that could “improve all of our lives” – and said officials are “discriminating against people”.

The Alliance Party has not responded to questions from the News Letter on the matter.

Now, ​Ryan Wilson, NIPSA Assistant Secretary, has expressed concern at the language used – saying a “serious accusation was made against civil servants” in the Department for Communities.

Mr Wilson told the News Letter: “Our members are impartial, professional public servants who implement the decisions of Ministers.

“It is entirely appropriate for politicians to scrutinise policy and its implementation, but that must be done fairly and directed at those responsible for the decisions made.

“NIPSA will always protect its members and urges all politicians to reflect on their language and the impact it has on hard-working public servants who carry out their duties with integrity”.

The comments by Kellie Armstrong were made as MLAs on the communities committee heard frustrations from groups who have been cut out of a policy making process. Addressing women’s groups who were giving evidence, as well as the Rainbow Project, Mrs Armstrong said: “It breaks my heart to think that there are civil servants out there who are just passing paper around a table instead of actually getting on with strategies that can improve all of our lives.

“Because I know a lot of people think that the gender equality strategy is all about women. It's about improving lives across Northern Ireland, and the fact that we haven't had an appropriate use of Section 75 for years makes me furious.

“To be honest, it's an absolute waste of civil servants time telling us that they're not discriminating against people when they are. But you can tell I'm quite frustrated.

“I could do time because I know the amount of work that was put in in the last mandate, and all of that time for the community and voluntary sector to be told 'you're not needed anymore, we'll do it ourselves'. That's misogyny”.

It comes amid a dispute at Stormont about Gordon Lyons’ decision to scrap ‘co-design’ groups which had been set up by his Sinn Fein predecessor Deirdre Hargey.

The minister this week told the News Letter that he won’t “outsource” policy decisions to lobby groups – saying they are matters for elected politicians and the Executive.

The scheme had meant that special interest groups had an ongoing input into policies written by civil servants – and were continually consulted on their development. That has now ended – despite the concept having been lauded by Sinn Fein, Alliance and SDLP representatives. Mr Lyons said: “What would be the point of having ministers in place if you just outsource this to other groups?”,