AN ACADEMIC has been nominated as the new Northern Ireland Assembly Commissioner for Standards.
Dr Melissa McCullough is Stormont's third attempt to fill the independent watchdog post, which investigates complaints about the conduct of MLAs.
The assembly has not had a standards commissioner in post since September 2017 amid the three-year collapse of devolution.
In July, retired solicitor Paul Kennedy was selected for the role after the preferred candidate pulled out because of illness.
However, the Co Down-based lawyer later withdrew himself from the process at the eleventh hour.
The Irish News later revealed Mr Kennedy had been censured some years ago by a solicitors disciplinary tribunal.
Stormont officials were only alerted to this in the days following his selection after a letter was sent anonymously to a senior politician, it is understood.
Dr McCullough has been nominated by the Assembly Commission – a Stormont body comprising of MLAs from the five main parties.
MLAs are expected to formally agree on Monday during a debate in the assembly to her formal appointment, which will then begin with immediate effect.
Assembly speaker Alex Maskey, chair of the commission, said he was pleased to confirm Dr McCullough had been identified for appointment as the new standards commissioner.
"Over the past 15 years, Dr McCullough has worked as an academic in law, ethics and professionalism in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
"This breadth of experience will leave her well equipped to perform this vital role."
Dr McCullough, who is married with three grown-up children, moved to Northern Ireland from the US in 1994 and completed her PhD in Biomedical Sciences as well as an LLB, MSc Bioethics and mediation certification.
Writing in the Irish News in April, where she called for people to treat health care workers with dignity and respect, she told how her own mother Donna had died from coronavirus that month in a care home in New Jersey.
Since 2005, she has worked as an academic in law, ethics and professionalism in the UK and Ireland.
Dr McCullough served as a ministerial appointed non-executive director for the Health and Social Care Board from 2009 to 2020 and as a member of the governance, reference and remuneration sub-committees.
She is currently a visiting academic at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, an assessor and chair for undergraduate medical programs for the Medical Council Ireland and also acts as a law and ethics specialist on the Clinical Governance Board at Synergix Health, London.
Dr McCullough was chosen for the watchdog role on the basis of the recruitment competition conducted in 2017, when the previous standards commissioner Douglas Bain stood down.
Mr Bain – who conducted high-profile probes including the Iris Robinson affair – last year said he understood there is a "substantial" backlog of complaints from the years since he stepped down.
He said it was "appalling" that MLAs are "drawing their salaries from the public and there is no effective complaints system".
Under the 'New Decade, New Approach' deal which restored devolved government in January, the parties outlined plans for a new watchdog specifically for ministers, called the Commissioners for Ministerial Standards.
However, the three new ministerial commissioners have yet to be appointed.
