Stormont Education Minister Paul Givan has insisted that he has met a broad range of groups from across the community during his time in office.
Mr Givan has received criticism, alongside his DUP colleague and Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, for meeting with the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC).
Parties across the chamber in Stormont have questioned why both the ministers met in recent weeks with the council, which is an umbrella group representing the Ulster Volunteer Force, Ulster Defence Association and Red Hand Commando.
Mr Givan and Mr Lyons have also been accused of prioritising the LCC while turning down meeting requests from other groups.
On Tuesday, it emerged that Mr Givan had declined more than 200 meeting invitations with groups and organisations since he took up office earlier this year.
Mr Givan rejected the criticism, saying he has had hundreds of meetings with groups from “every aspect of our society”.
“Having taken up post nearly eight months ago, I’ve accepted over 320 invitations,” he said, during a visit to the school in Lisburn, Co Antrim on Wednesday.
“I’ve fulfilled hundreds of them, and that has been a cross section of every aspect of our society, every single sector within education, so I don’t think that criticism stands.”
He added: “I’ve made clear that we need to make sure every part of our society moves forward and I’m here in Lisburn from a working class loyalist community that 20 years ago was in a very dark place, but because of the work of politicians and government, we’ve been able to bring our communities forward and I want to make sure we make progress and bring everybody forward.”
Mr Givan said where any organisation or individual engages in criminality, the police and the authorities should pursue them and bring them before the courts.
“But where people want to move forward, just because they had a past, but they now have put that behind them, then we need to make sure that we also have a future so that everyone can step forward,” he said.