The Sinn Féin deputy president has refused to be drawn on reports that a senior party member is among several people to have been laid off by the party.
Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O’Neill was asked about reports in this morning’s Belfast Telegraph about former Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew.
The paper reported that Ms Gildernew was one of five people laid off by the party after an internal review.
"I'm not going to get into the ins and outs of anybody's career, and I'm also not going to get into the ins and outs of the HR issues internally in the party," Ms O’Neill said.
Asked to confirm that five people had been laid off she said, "I'm not going to get into the internal issues of the HR of the party."
At the time, Ms Gildernew would have been one of the most high-profile party members in the north.
A former Stormont executive minister, she won the hotly contested Fermanagh and South Tyrone Westminster seat several times.
She stood aside in the last UK election and the party ran senior nursing union official Pat Cullen in her place.
She went on to win the seat.
Ms Gildernew contested a 2024 European Parliament seat for Sinn Féin in the Midlands Northwest constituency, but the party did not poll as well as expected and did not take a seat.
Ms Gildernew is believed to have been working for the party in a paid capacity since.
