Education minister invited to make second Israel visit

Paul Givan was among a group of unionist politicians who went on a six-day tour of Israel

Education Minister Paul Givan has received an invitation to make a second visit to Israel in the new year.

The invitation to attend a conference has been received by the Department of Education "within the last couple of days".

That is according to the most senior official in the department, Ronnie Armour.

Mr Armour also said it was not his role to make a "moral judgement" about Givan's controversial trip to Israel last month.

Mr Armour answered questions from politicians on Stormont's education committee about Givan's visit on Wednesday.

"I absolutely understand the sensitivities of what has gone on in Israel and in Gaza on both sides," Mr Armour said.

But Mr Armour faced strong questioning from some MLAs (members of the legislative assembly), including the Sinn Féin deputy chair of the committee Pat Sheehan.

"Do you think it's right that the minister went to visit a country which is responsible for the deaths of over 20,000 schoolchildren and the maiming and injury of tens of thousands of others?" Sheehan asked.

"Did that not raise any sort of moral issues with you at all?"

"My heart goes out to everybody that has suffered in that part of the world, but it is not my role to judge a decision that the minister made," Mr Armour replied.

A permanent secretary is the most senior non-political official in a government department, effectively the department's chief executive.

Givan had faced a no confidence motion from MLAs in Stormont over his trip to Israel.

But it failed to gain the required support from unionists, and was not passed.

Givan called the motion a "toxic mix of antisemitism, anti-unionism and hypocrisy".

However, the parties supporting the motion said he should not have used departmental resources to share images of his visit.

The umbrella body for the teaching unions in Northern Ireland were also critical of the trip and of the Department of Education (DE) for "promoting" his visit on its online platforms.

The minister had previously defended using departmental resources to share images of his visit to a school in Jerusalem.

Gerry Carroll (centre) organised protests against Paul Givan as well as proposing the motion of no confidence

Mr Armour appeared before MLAs to answer questions on the role of the department and actions undertaken by officials before, during and immediately after Givan's trip.

According to Mr Armour, civil servants did "minimal" work on the visit.

He said Givan was "not on the trip in Israel in his official capacity," but had been invited as part of a delegation by the Israeli embassy in the UK.

"On that basis, why was the department anywhere near press releases?" asked Alliance MLA and committee chair Nick Mathison.

"The minister requested that the press release be issued," Mr Armour replied.

Mr Armour said that the Department of Education (DE) did not fund any aspect of the visit and all trip costs were covered by the Israeli embassy, including travel, accommodation and insurance.

"No departmental advice was commissioned or provided in relation to accepting or declining the invitation," he said.

Alliance assembly member Nick Mathison is head of Stormont's education committee

However, Mr Armour said DE staff carried out "a small number of administrative tasks" prior to the minister's visit.

That included providing a letter of acceptance and confirming travel arrangements and security clearance.

Private office staff "undertook took approximately 10 actions," according to Mr Armour, "largely short email responses".

"The time spent by them on these was minimal."

Mr Armour said that no departmental officials went on the trip or were remotely involved in engagements.

But the minister had requested that following a visit to an Israeli school on 27 October that a press release was issued about the visit.

Officials in the press office then wrote a release which was approved by Mr Armour, who concluded that it "did not contain political content".

"It provided only factual information, it was relevant to the minister's portfolio," he told MLAs.

He said officials had a "limited role" in preparing and clearing the press release.

Mr Armour said he later met Givan on 3 November to review the visit.

He said Givan had used the visit to find out about the education system in Israel.

Sheehan said the school Givan visited was in "internationally recognised illegally- occupied territory."

Mr Armour replied he was not aware of the specific location of the school when assessing the minister's visit.

"You didn't check that?" Sheehan asked.

"Perhaps I should have, but I didn't," Armour responded.

Mr Armour said he did not think it was for him "to make a judgement in term of the wider politics of all that was going on."

"It's not politics, it's the law, international law," Sheehan replied.

SDLP MLA Cara Hunter asked Mr Armour if he agreed that the trip was "political by nature".

"I'm not going to be drawn into that, I'm here today to talk about the role that officials played," Mr Armour said.

"I'm doing that in an open and transparent way."

"It's not for me to make judgements on the nature of the trip or the minister's intention on going on the trip."

UUP MLA Jon Burrows said that it was "really disappointing" that the committee had spent so much time on the issue when there were "schools crumbling and so many issues to be sorted".

He said the department and Mr Armour had been "put in the cross hairs of a political argument that wasn't of your making".