A stand-off between Stormont's Culture Committee and Edwin Poots over plans for the Maze stadium ended today after members agreed to hear the minister's evidence in private session.
MLAs adjourned the meeting in protest for an hour after accusing the Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister of leaving them in the dark about business plans for the 37,000-seater multi-sports stadium.
DUP North Belfast representative Nelson McCausland accused the department of using the committee for a PR exercise for the former prison site near Lisburn, Co Antrim.
"Until the process is complete this is an absolute waste of time having any sort of presentation," he said. "It seems to me that this committee is being used this morning as a platform to justify a PR exercise outside this room and to use the committee this way is an abuse of the democratic process."
Slides illustrating the futuristic arena were to be shown to the committee before being put on public display. The venue is expected to host football, rugby and Gaelic games as well as rock concerts.
Members of the DUP minister's own party are uneasy about the project with some preferring a site in Belfast rather than the former jail.
In July, Mr Poots told the committee the stadium business case should be ready for the autumn. The deadline passed, but it has been reported that both the business cases for the stadium and the Maze site should be with Finance Minister Peter Robinson by the end of this week.
The Maze site includes plans for a conflict transformation centre that would retain part of the infamous H-blocks where 10 republican prisoners died on hunger strike in 1981. Unionist opponents have warned against it becoming a shrine to terrorism.