The DUP's Ian Paisley Jnr will not face any disciplinary action in the Assembly after he said he was repulsed by gay people.
Stormont's Standards and Privileges Committee voted against further steps after divided opinion forced a head count earlier this month.
Unionist support ensured the committee accepted Interim Commissioner for Standards Tom Frawley's findings that comments published in Dublin's Hot Pressmagazine last May did not breach members' code of conduct.
SDLP chairwoman Carmel Hanna said: "We have no grounds for further action but we need to be clear that concerns were expressed by our committee that, in making this decision that Paisley Jnr didn't breach the code of conduct, that some members have real concerns about that."
Mr Paisley, a junior minister in the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister, said in the article he was "repulsed" by homosexuals but that he did not hate gay people.
His comments prompted a political row, with the SDLP accusing him of failing in his duty to represent all the people in his constituency.
The standards committee is reviewing the code of conduct.
However, Ms Hanna added: "I was concerned that we would be setting a precedent by agreeing this report. "I personally believe that there was a breach. "Paisley jnr knew that his comments were on the record, nothing was taken out of context and he knew that the issue of homosexuality was going to come up."