The Northern Ireland Office paid a senior civil servant £10,000 in compensation because he was offended at having to walk past portraits of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, it has been claimed.
Lord Maginnis told the House of Lords the NIO made the “scandalous” payment in an apparent effort to salve the official’s “hurt feelings and distress”, and later promoted him.
It was not possible to independently verify the claim. In a brief statement the NIO declined to confirm or challenge its accuracy. “The government takes its obligations under fair employment legislation very seriously. We will not comment on individual personnel matters,” it said.
Maginnis, a former Ulster Unionist party MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, told the Lords on Wednesday night the official was Lee Hegarty, who serves on the Parades Commission, a body that has angered unionists by banning and redirecting marches.
“This individual, who had worked in the NIO for between 15 and 20 years, claimed that under human rights legislation it was unfair to him to have to work where he was offended by portraits,” said the peer, in a speech first reported by the Belfast News Letter.
The portraits were removed and Hegarty was consulted on what should replace them, said the peer. “He suggested that the portraits of Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh should be replaced with photographs of, at best, the Queen meeting people during engagements in Northern Ireland.”
One replacement featured the Queen shaking hands in Belfast with Martin McGuinness, the late Sinn Féin deputy first minister, said Maginnis.
“I do not mind that; what I mind is that the case brought by the complainant was settled secretly and that the sum of £10,000 was handed over, presumably for hurt feelings and distress.”
Theresa Villiers, who served as Northern Ireland secretary of state from 2012-16, signed off the settlement on the recommendation of her permanent secretary, Jonathan Stephens, said Maginnis.
He contrasted the alleged payment with the delay in compensating victims of historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland who have been “shamefully left out in the cold when it comes to their justifiable claims for compensation”.
Maginnis called it a scandalous indictment of the NIO and the Conservative government. He urged the NIO to restore the original portraits and to expedite payments to victims of institutional abuse.
If verified, the peer’s allegation will put scrutiny on the Parades Commission, which regulates marches, at the height of the loyalist marching season. Hegarty currently serves as the commission’s secretary and accounting officer.
