Neutered inquiry not intended to uncover full facts - Allister

01 September 2010

Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister QC:-

“The announcement that the Sir Jon Shortridge investigation into events at DRD will be restricted to the narrow issue of the letter of 5^th July 2010 to the Public Accounts Committee utterly avoids the breadth and depth of issues which need to be explored arising from the NIW controversy.

“Public concern goes much wider than the Priestly/Dixon letter. It includes all of the following:-

• the apparently orchestrated sacking of the four non-executive directors and any machinations between the NIW Chief Executive and DRD therein;
• the establishment and choice of the so called ‘Independent Review Team’, including any links between those appointed, those appointing and those with an interest in the outcome;
• the interference with the work of the ‘Independent Review Team’ and in particular any DRD re-writing of its report;
• the appointment of the replacement non-executive directors, including how it came about that they included at least one Sinn Fein acolyte;
• the appointment of the new NIW Chairman, given his family association with key Sinn Fein causes, most notably the ‘Colombia Three’;
• the role of senior DRD personnel in all or any of the above;
• the role of the DRD Minister, either directly or through his Special Adviser, or otherwise, in all or any of the above.

“Today’s announcement has all the appearance of a deliberate attempt to get the focus off the wider and disturbing issues, where the Minister has questions to answer, and onto an issue which can be confined to the suspended Permanent Secretary. I fear classic scapegoating and political control is afoot. Minister Murphy, having already underwritten the actions of Mr Priestly up to 5^th July, does not want any focus on his own actions and, therefore, an investigation which diverts attention to an issue where the Minister believes he is in the clear suits him fine.

“However, it does not meet the public expectation for transparency and no hiding place for anyone or anything that went on with DRD and NIW. Only a thorough-going inquiry under The Inquiries Act 2005 will do that and, therefore I renew my call for such, made all the more imperative in a governmental system where is no Official Opposition to probe or expose within the Assembly forum.

“Even the terms of reference for the probe into the 5^th July letter are limited to “the conduct of Mr Priestly and any other civil servant”, whereas on that issue alone we need to know if the Minister’s Special Adviser had any knowledge or role. But on these terms we’re unlikely to ever know.

“As one has come to expect from a Stormont where every party is in the government club this ‘inquiry’ will not establish the full facts regarding any DRD/NIW chicanery, nor is it intended to, rather, its function is to help brush all but a single tangential issue under the carpet, with no political damage to any politician. Shortridge is intended as a shortcut to a politically convenient burial of the DRD/NIW scandal.”

NI politics