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Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister Naomi Long has accused SDLP Stormont leader Matthew O’Toole of attempting to “impugn” her character and integrity as she answered questions over an ongoing strike by criminal barristers.

The exchange in the Assembly occurred after Mr O’Toole drew attention to an error made by the minister during a live broadcast interview, accusing her of attempting to “win an argument rather than solve a problem”.

Criminal barristers started the strike action this month in a long-running dispute over the fees paid for legal aid work.

The escalated action has effectively halted Crown Court cases involving people who required legal aid.

The barristers have argued it is a “last resort”, and that legal aid fees are worth less than half what they were worth in 2005 when they were set.

But Ms Long has said a recent 16% uplift will amount to an annual increase of £11.5 million in legal aid fees.

The Department of Justice issued a clarification last week after Ms Long said on air that a barrister earned more than £3 million in legal aid in a single year.

The department clarified that one barrister did earn £3.98 million, but it was over a three-and-a-half year period which ended in September.

Raising the issue at ministerial question time, Mr O’Toole said the error would have “set back relations that have already been frayed between you and the Criminal Bar”.

He added: “The people who are suffering are victims and witnesses of crime awaiting the criminal justice process.

“It speaks to a deeper tendency people have observed in you, which is a desire to win an argument rather than solve a problem.

“Will you commit now to entering into a process of mediation with the Criminal Bar, as suggested by the Lady Chief Justice?”

Ms Long responded: “I note that every time the member asks a question, he always tries to in some way impugn my character or my integrity as part of his questioning.

“It can never simply be a case that there is a disagreement and that I am actually trying to resolve that disagreement, he always has to have a dig at me personally when he asks this question.

“I have already put on the record my error in that quote.

“Let’s be absolutely clear then for the avoidance of doubt, one barrister received three £3.98 million over a three-and-a-half year period, which ended in September 2025.

“That was just over the cumulative total paid to 53% of their colleagues involved in criminal legal aid work.

“That is the fact of the matter and people can make of those facts what they wish.”

The minister said the fact that some “young barristers are not able to earn a living is not down to the rates of pay, but down to the poor distribution of cases amongst the bar and the concentration of large numbers of cases with a small number of barristers”.

She added: “I’m happy to correct the record where I have been wrong, despite what some people say.

“And I am not about winning an argument here, but I am about protecting public money, and I have to be.

“Were I to come to this chamber in the context of the budgetary constraints that we face, and be profligate in my spending of public money, I’m sure the leader of the opposition would be the first to his feet to suggest it’s a character trait of mine.”