The notion that Emma Little-Pengelly was conducting official Stormont business in Wimbledon’s Royal Box “insults the intelligence of the public”, Stormont’s Opposition leader has claimed.

The Executive Office has confirmed that the deputy first minister’s trip to watch the July 3 ladies singles’ Centre Court clash between Emma Raducanu and defending champion Marketa Vondrousova earlier this month was taken in an “official capacity”.

The Irish News revealed that the taxpayer-funded cost of the trip, on which the deputy first minister was accompanied by her husband and Education Authority boss Richard Pengelly, was almost £1,000.

The total cost of £980 included £96 for “airport services” and £152 on transport.

Mr Pengelly is understood to have paid for his own flights, with the couple spending two nights in London.

Ms Little-Pengelly, whose salary is £125,000, described being invited to the Royal Box as the “honour of a lifetime”, while her husband faced criticism at the time, as the Wimbledon trip was taken in the midst of an unfolding crisis over a lack of school places for dozens of children with special educational needs.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill was also invited to Wimbledon but declined, instead attending the all-Ireland semi final between Tyrone and Kerry on July 12.

The Executive Office has said there were no costs associated with the first minister’s trip to Croke Park.

Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw, the chair of Stormont’s Executive Office scrutiny committee, has queried the “justification” of the DUP deputy first minister’s trip to Wimbledon.

Ms Little-Pengelly’s Stormont office has declined to say whether she had any other engagements or meetings while in London or to clarify how the trip was of interest to the public.

Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole told The Irish News that “no one begrudges” the deputy first minister a trip to Wimbledon but he said it was “astonishing that she thought it appropriate that the public should have to meet the cost of what is clearly a jolly day out at the tennis”.

“The idea that official business was conducted in the Royal Box at Wimbledon insults the intelligence of the public here,” the SDLP MLA said.

“Given the pre-existing public frustration over the hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on five star hotel trips by ministers, it beggars belief that the deputy first minister expected the public to meet the cost of a trip that most ordinary people in Northern Ireland could only dream about.”

Mr O’Toole said he intended to “establish if any official business took place and why it justified cost to the public purse”.