THE Culture Secretary is likely to find out today whether she will be hauled back in front of a Holyrood committee to face further interrogation over a decision to hand T in the Park £150,000 of taxpayers' cash.
Fiona Hyslop came under fire from the Scottish Parliament's education and culture committee last week over the move, but some MSPs were left unhappy with her responses to their questions.
The committee will discuss today whether or not Ms Hyslop should make a return appearance, amid claims that she misled members over her relationship with Jennifer Dempsie, a former SNP adviser who worked for T in the Park promoter DF Concerts and brokered the meeting that led to the funding deal.
Ms Hyslop claimed to have not had any sort of relationship with Alex Salmond's former advisor for ‘years’ but they exchanged Facebook messages last summer regarding her Ms Dempsie's now aborted bid to become an SNP MSP next May.
It has also emerged that neither Ms Hyslop nor any of her officials had read an economic impact study commissioned by DF concerts about the music festival before making their decision to award cash to a firm that made multi-million pound profits in recent years.
Ms Hyslop has claimed she authorised the payment as festival organisers had said they may move T in the Park out of Scotland due to costs associated a planning application and changing the location of festival earlier this year, or downgrade it to smaller, one-day city based events.
Labour MSP John Pentland, a member of the education and culture committee, said Ms Hyslop should be recalled to "face the music".
He added: "T in the Park is an iconic Scottish cultural event that has entertained millions and boosted the local economy. It's a fantastic event that we should all be rightly proud of. However, questions still remain unanswered about the SNP Government handing £150,000 worth of taxpayer cash to the event.
"We have seen suggestions that the event would not have been viable, would have to have been a one day event, or would have to have been moved out of Scotland without public cash. None of this seems credible.
"But the SNP Minister took it to a whole new level last week by saying she had no relationship with Jennifer Dempsie whilst swapping Facebook messages with her. It’s insulting to the Scottish Parliament and to the Scottish people.
"The fact that the Culture Minister had not read the economic impact assessment put to her suggests proper due diligence was not carried out."
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