Ireland Assembly in the 2007 elections as part of a Sinn Féin team which won five out of the six seats in Belfast West. After a Public Accounts Committee report criticised the waste of money on a project to build a campus of the University of Ulster on one of the peace lines at Springvale in north Belfast, Maskey placed the blame on the SDLP Minister Carmel Hanna. He became chairman of the committee in May 2008. In July 2009 he supported a committee investigation into the £33m paid annually in legal fees and compensation to people claiming for tripping on pavements. Under Maskey's chairmanship the committee held a detailed scrutiny of Northern Ireland Water in 2010, after it awarded 70 contracts without competition. Maskey denounced the situation as "absolutely staggering" and said that he could not remember "a more serious case of complete disregard for public sector ethics." The committee held a meeting to question officers of NI Water which took three and a half hours; Maskey joked at the end that the officers would need an "articulated lorry" to send all the information requested by MLAs. When Maskey organised a protest against a parade by Royal Irish Regiment soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan in October 2008, he explained that he wanted "a peaceful, dignified protest" against the wars, but that he did want to see British forces returning without injury. In December 2010 Maskey criticised other political parties in Northern Ireland for seeking to keep the details of people who funded them confidential; he said that "justifiable public cynicism is generated when it is perceived that political parties are not being open about their financial affairs." He was re-elected in 2011, topping the poll with 5,343 first preference votes. He was again named as Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee in the new mandate. UK Parliament After his re-election to the Northern Ireland Assembly, Maskey announced on 12 May 2011 that he would be standing for selection as Sinn Féin candidate for the Belfast West constituency in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, which had been left vacant when Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams resigned to fight for a seat in Dáil Éireann. He was immediately supported by Gerry Kelly MLA. and as the only nomination for the vacancy, was selected on 19 May. At the by-election on 9 June, Maskey was elected with over