Communities minister Gordon Lyons has been urged to reveal details of a meeting with representatives of the US National Security Council during a recent trip to Washington just days after he sat down with a loyalist umbrella group.
During the £40,000 nine-day visit to the US and Canada the DUP minister took part in a series of engagements with historical, cultural and church-linked groups.
It has also emerged the minister, who is responsible for sports and culture in the north, met with the Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, which is the US president’s “principle forum for national security and foreign policy decision making”.
The meeting took place in Washington on October 11, three days after Mr Lyons met with the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) in Belfast.
The LCC is an umbrella group for the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando.
The UDA/UFF is currently listed on the USA’s Terrorist Exclusion List, meaning anyone associated with the groups can be prevented from entering the country.
It is not known if Mr Lyons made US officials aware of his contentious meeting with the loyalist delegation just days before meeting NSC officials in Washington.
West Belfast People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll last night said Mr Lyons needs “to be upfront about what was discussed in his meeting with the National Security Council”.
“It beggars belief why he was meeting them at all,” Mr Carroll said.
“He should make it clear whether he was there as a minister for communities, supposedly advocating for all people, or was he representing his own party interests.
“Was Gordon Lyons raising issues on behalf of groups like the LCC, was he declaring his support for the US government’s pro-Israeli policy or was he engaged in some other questionable lobbying?”
Mr Carroll added that the minister “has a duty to provide some clarity on these questions”.
The DfC was contacted by The Irish News but did not respond.
However, when challenged in the assembly on Tuesday by Mr Carroll, the communities minister said a number of issues were raised in the meeting “about the work of my department and the wider political situation”.
The recent trip by Mr Lyons to north America has caused controversy.
The minister, his special adviser, and private secretary flew from Dublin to Washington in business class, while three other officials travelled in economy at a cost of more than £21,000.
While the cost of flights for Mr Lyons and his special adviser was £5,658 each, the price tag for the private secretary was £7,448 - almost £2,000 more.
During the trip, Mr Lyons and four officials also flew economy class to Toronto at a total cost of more than £4,500.
Figures released in response to a Freedom of Information Request show that accommodation costs in America came to more than £13,000.
Mr Lyons later said he was “shocked” by the cost of the trip.
