The North's First Minister, the Rev Ian Paisley, emerged relatively unscathed from his first appearance at the dispatch box yesterday despite answering a question he was not asked on his son Ian jnr's views on homosexuality.
Dr Paisley stood up to answer half an hour of questions to the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister. Unlike his predecessors - first David Trimble and Séamus Mallon, and second Mr Trimble and Mark Durkan - who took question time together, alternately answering each question, Dr Paisley took all questions yesterday.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will solely take the next question time to their office.
Dr Paisley clearly believed that questions posed by the SDLP's Thomas Burns and Patsy McGlone were designed to ambush him on junior Minister Mr Paisley jnr's recent Hot Press interview where he said he was "pretty repulsed" by homosexuality.
Mr Burns and Mr McGlone respectively asked him to make a statement on the "appointment" and "role" of the two junior Ministers in the First Minister and Deputy First Minister's office. Dr Paisley, whose son was sitting beside him, gave a general answer about their responsibilities which essentially was to assist the First Minister and Deputy First Minister with "their enormous workload".
Mr Burns then asked Dr Paisley did he agree with what he said was a previous assessment by Mr Paisley jnr that the real purpose was to "prevent the proper Assembly scrutiny of the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister".
Dr Paisley, seemingly over-primed for questions about his son, then answered the question he wasn't asked by repeating the stock answer his office has supplied when queried about Mr Paisley jnr's interview. He said he and the Deputy First Minister had made it clear that their office was "totally committed to promoting equality and human rights" and "were completely opposed to any form of intimidation and harassment against any citizen".
Mr McGlone asked Dr Paisley did he agree with comments made by Mr Paisley jnr in 1999 that the purpose of the junior ministers was to feather the "nests of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister's parties". Dr Paisley again appeared to interpret this as relating to the Hot Press interview and said he was holding to his original answer.
Sinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson then asked did Dr Paisley agree that Mr Paisley's comments in Hot Press would have been "indefensible if they had been made as junior Minister".
"That's sweet coming from you," someone interjected from the DUP benches, referring to Ms Anderson's IRA conviction in the mid-1980s.
"My answer is the same," said Dr Paisley.
SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly asked Dr Paisley for a guarantee that "further to the offensive comments of recent weeks by junior Minister Paisley, that minister will have no role in equality legislation in relation to the gay and lesbian community".
"No, I am not in a position to give those assurances. This house is sovereign, this house is Pope," said Dr Paisley.
Asked by Ulster Unionist deputy leader Danny Kennedy for confirmation that Dr Paisley's office was shared with "IRA commander" Martin McGuinness, he said people "in glass houses should not throw stones", a reference to the fact that the UUP sat in the first executive with Mr McGuinness.
