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Will former Robinson Spad attend his Nama hearing?

Former DUP special adviser Emma Pengelly is now an MLA and member of the Stormont finance committee
Former DUP special adviser Emma Pengelly is now an MLA and member of the Stormont finance committee Former DUP special adviser Emma Pengelly is now an MLA and member of the Stormont finance committee

IT remains unclear whether Peter Robinson's former special adviser Emma Pengelly will play any role in the finance committee's questioning of him over the sale of Nama's northern debt portfolio.

Mr Robinson is scheduled to appear before the Stormont scrutiny committee to answer questions about his role in the north's biggest ever property deal.

Mrs Pengelly was drafted onto the finance committee last week, days after being co-opted to the assembly as a replacement for Jimmy Spratt in South Belfast.

Prior to becoming an assembly member, she worked as special adviser to Mr Robinson in the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

She would have been employed in the DUP leader's Stormont office during the period on which the committee's questions are likely to focus.

Mrs Pengelly's husband Richard, who is now permanent secretary at the Department of Health, was public spending director at the Department of Finance and Personnel from 2007 to 2012.

He was earmarked by Sammy Wilson as a potential member of Nama's northern advisory board, a role that was eventually given to Frank Cushnahan and Brian Rowntree.

Mrs Pengelly has already indicated on Twitter that she will absent herself from the committee if her husband is called to give evidence and she has also used social media to distance herself from the details of the Nama deal.

However, it remains unclear if the South Belfast MLA planned exempt herself from the committee hearing where Mr Robinson will give evidence.

During a meeting of the committee last week, she dismissed concerns of a "conflict of interest" over any role her husband had in Stormont's dealings with Nama.

The qualified barrister rejected a suggestion from Sinn Féin's Máirtín Ó Muilleoir that she should not take part in committee discussions related to bad bank's sale of its northern debt book.

"Both my husband and I are professionals. My view is not in terms of a conflict of interest in terms of our roles. Perhaps it may be perceived but the fact is that there is not," she said.

The DUP leader was called by the committee last month after loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson claimed Mr Robinson was set to share in a "success fee" linked to the Nama deal.

Mr Robinson has strenuously denied the allegations as "scurrilous and unfounded".

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has also told the committee there are "very serious questions" about what capacity his government partner was acting in with regards to meetings about the Nama sale.

He has insisted he was not told about contacts involving bidders and DUP ministers, although the DUP has claimed he was kept informed.