Chief Minister Howard Quayle has complained about being ’castigated’ by the media.

The grumble came as the House of Keys debated whether to return in September next year, rather than the traditional time for the first sitting of the parliamentary year - the fourth Tuesday in October.

Two weeks ago, in his ’state of the nation’ address, the chief minister hit out at ’sensationalism’ in Manx journalism - but subsequently refused a request from Isle of Man Newspapers to specify any examples.

However, he appeared to reveal one of his gripes during last week’s Keys sitting.

He took exception to the fact he was criticised for the way in which a written answer given, in his name, to a Tynwald question submitted last month. A rule change this year meant written Tynwald questions were permitted in August and September, even though there was no formal sitting.

It turns out that Mr Quayle was on holiday when Daphne Caine (Garff) tabled a question for answer in September, asking what he was doing in response to the rise in foodbank use and about homelessness. He described it as ’disappointing’ that Mrs Caine did not check before tabling the question.

Mr Quayle said he thought the summer time written questions experiment had been an ’absolute waste of time’.

He added: ’I was on holiday when that question came in, so the staff, quite rightly, to be helpful, put an answer out that I had given previously in a supplementary in a previous place, and yet I am castigated on the front page of the newspapers for being flippant to Mrs Caine with less than a hundred words.’

The previous answer Mr Quayle is understood to be referring to came in the House of Keys in October last year, in response to a tabled verbal question. Most ministers, when answering a question tabled formally for oral answer, read from a prepared response to the initial question, before answering any follow-up - supplementary - questions.

Mr Quayle continued: ’I even get a letter in the newspaper from a charity, saying how disgraceful it is that the chief minister does not care about homelessness - when the chief minister was having his first holiday in 14 months and could not answer the question, but his staff had genuinely tried to make an effort.’

The news story that appears to have annoyed Mr Quayle appeared on the front page of the Isle of Man Courier.

In the article, Mrs Caine said she was disappointed at the response to her question, because its brevity did not illustrate the amount of work taking place.

The news report, which did not use the word ’flippant’, also pointed out that, while the latest answer contained fewer than 100 words, the opening answer to the similar question, given in the Keys last year, was more than 200 words.

Responding to Mr Quayle’s criticism, Mrs Caine told MHKs said she tabled the question because the situation was urgent.

’I am shocked that the chief minister would say that he did not know the answer that was going out in his name,’ she said.

’I was a little surprised at the brevity of the answer because, after I had tabled that question and the question paper was published, I had a whole range of people phone, and contact and email me, telling me of the huge amount of work that was going on.’

The written answer at the centre of the row did not mention that Mr Quayle was on holiday or that it had been supplied on his behalf.