The senior civil servant responsible for a planned multi-sports stadium in Northern Ireland was today accused of failing to reveal concerns about building it at the former Maze prison site.
Members of a Stormont committee heavily criticised the permanent secretary at the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL), Paul Sweeney, for not providing them with a copy of a letter he sent to the Finance Department outlining a number of issues about the proposal that he believed needed "clarification".
The committee requested the letter last week after it emerged that Mr Sweeney had not yet backed the recommendations of an independent consultants' report that identified a stg£240 million stadium development at the former prison site as the preferred option.
The committee clerk told members of the Culture, Arts and Leisure (CAL) committee that despite numerous requests for the document Mr Sweeney's officials had not forwarded it.
Instead Mr Sweeney sent an email to the clerk of the committee reiterating that there were a number of issues that needed clarification and he had not reached a definite position on the proposal.
Committee member Francie Brolly said the response was unacceptable. "How many issues is he talking about and what are the issues?" he asked.
"This [email] is no information at all, this is rubbish, total rubbish."
Mr Sweeney reviewed the PricewaterhouseCoopers recommendations in conjunction with Sports minister Edwin Poots and other senior DCAL officials before passing them on to Finance Minister Peter Robinson's department to examine the feasibility of the Maze development.
Nelson McCausland noted that it was accepted practice for a department's permanent secretary to sign off in support of a business case before forwarding it onto another department.
"In this case the permanent secretary hasn't signed off on it so he obviously has reservations and those have been relayed to the Department of Finance," he said.
"We are told issues still need clarified. But I thought that's what the PWC report was supposed to do - clarify things."
David McNarry questioned why the committee was not getting sight of the letter. "That's irresponsible and unacceptable from the permanent secretary," he said.
"This is not first time these officials have tried to dictate to us what to do. What's he hiding, if he's nothing to hide there shouldn't be a problem, why is he sitting on his own letter?"
Members agreed to make another request to the permanent secretary to provide them with a copy of the letter or to outline what specific issues he believed needed clarification.
The committee also decided to defer further discussion on the long running national stadium debate until the Minister of Finance indicated whether or not he would be giving the development the green light. Mr Robinson is expected to signal his intent within six weeks.