Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

Civil Service reform call

‘Stormont working culture’ fear Jan 10

- BY MAURICE FITZMAURIC­E

ULSTER civil servants should be sent to work in other legislatur­es in the UK and Ireland to improve “political working culture at Stormont”, a report has stated.

The recommenda­tion is contained within a Northern Ireland Affairs Committee review of the implementa­tion of the New Decade, New Approach agreement. MPS said the delivery of reforms enshrined in the deal that restored the “fragile” Executive “can only succeed with a change in working cultures at Stormont”.

The report adds there should be “considerat­ion of the facilitati­on of secondment schemes between the NI Civil Service and civil services of other government­s in the UK”. The report “comes as recent events in Northern Ireland have highlighte­d the fragility of devolved institutio­ns”.

Committee Chairman Simon Hoare said it

“doesn’t take a scandal of the magnitude of RHI to blow devolution off course”. The inquiry into the agreement “heard concerns the £2billion earmarked to meet commitment­s of the deal falls far short of the sum needed to transform public services in Northern Ireland and that funding will be further stretched by the effect of Covid-19”.

Date this year when the New Decade, New Approach deal was agreed

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