A complaint against former minister Edwin Poots over a tweet linking the LGBTQ community to paedophilia was dropped after the Commissioner found he was not “acting in his capacity as an MLA”.

Clare Bailey MLA, who submitted and later discontinued the complaint, said it illustrated the need for reform of the process.

She said: “The Assembly Code of Conduct must be reformed to embrace a wide interpretation of when and how MLAs are acting in an official capacity. It’s not acceptable that MLAs are given cover to make statements which demean a specific section of our community.

“Mr Poots describes himself as ‘MLA’ through his twitter handle. Yet, his Twitter statement was held to fall outside the scope of his capacity of a MLA. I think most people out there would see the lack of logic around the application of the Code of Conduct in this instance.

“We find ourselves in a situation where the Assembly is not sitting. Coupled with a narrow interpretation of the Assembly Code of Conduct, MLAs are relatively unaccountable at present.

“Let’s take a proactive and common sense approach to improving standards amongst political representatives. MLAs should be providing positive leadership at this time, not perpetuating intolerance.”