Maskey was elected to the Northern 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.