TUV calls for investigation into DRD under The Inquiries Act
18 August 2010
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
"If, as is clearly required, there is to be an investigation into what has been doing on within DRD, it must be both wideranging and transparently independent. The days of reviews which are independent in name only must be over.
"Among the matters causing public disquiet which must be thoroughly probed are:
1. How was the Independent Review Team (IRT) into NIW appointed, what links existed between those appointed and NIW/DRD personnel, why did the IRT permit the DRD Permanent Secretary to meddle in its work and rewrite aspects of its report and, in consequence, is there a case for recouping public money paid to those who permitted their independence to be compromised?
2. Is there a history of abuse of power regarding supposedly independent reviews, both within DRD and other departments and how widespread is the culture which caused a Permanent Secretary to feel able to act as he did?
3. How and why were the new Non Executive Directors at NIW chosen, bearing in mind, in particular, that one of them is a known Sinn Fein acolyte?
4. How and why was Mr White from Dublin chosen by Minister Murphy to Chair NIW, bearing in mind his apparent family affinity with Sinn Fein causes, not least his wife's support for the Columbia Three, whom she visited in jail?
"The taste and smell of DRD's handling of the NIW issue is not good and can only be dispelled by a thorough-going, wholly independent inquiry, set up under the The Inquiries Act 2005. The more DRD resists such, the more the suspicion will grow about what the Minister and his Department have to hide.
"In the absence of an Official Opposition at Stormont, which would be able to investigate, probe and expose wrongdoing, the case for an Official Inquiry under the 2005 Act is unanswerable."
