By Conor Sharkey

THE pressure on the Assembly's Health Minister to initiate a public inquiry into the case of Strabane pensioner Maureen McGinley increased further this week, with Ian Paisley wading into the debate.

Mrs McGinley's body suffered more than 30 fractures after her death from pneumonia at Altnagelvin Hospital last year.

Following an intense campaign for answers by both the eight McGinley children and MLA's from across the political spectrum, the case was brought before the Assembly on Tuesday.

During a 90 minute debate, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey faced a barrage of calls from all parties for a public inquiry.

Extremely vocal representations on behalf of the family members in atttendance were put forward by local MLA Claire McGill and MP Pat Doherty. However the most surprising and apparantly influential comments of the day came from former First Minister Ian Paisley.

Mr Paisley told the Chamber that it was not up to the family to prove the need for a public inquiry, but that the onus was on the government to investigate the circumstances around the injuries.

The former DUP leader's intervention appears to have heralded a change of attitude in the Health Minister, who replied that he was not ruling out that an inquiry would be held at some point.

And while Mr McGimpsey's promise is still a far cry from the answers the family are campaigning for, it is another chink light at the end of the tunnel according to Martin McGinley.

He said: "All the MLA's were 100 percent behind us throughout the debate which was great, but we really were surprised when Ian Paisley got up to speak.

"Only for him, I don't think McGimpsey would have turned, but the fact that he has means there is a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel for us."

Asked if he believed the Health Minister had offered lip service in the face of pressure from the floor, Martin said he didn't think so.

"Before, it seemed to be a case of out of sight, out of mind for him, but this time, everyone heard it live on television and I don't he will go back on his word. And the pressure is still growing on the Minister all the time, so I think he will have to bow to it at some stage and give us the inquiry we deserve.

"As a family we are still discussing our next move, but we will probably give Michael McGimpsey a month or two to look at the situation and we will decide ourselves," Mr McGinley added.