Opinion

Tom Kelly: RHI evidence exposes startling lack of confidence among Stormont ministers

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Retired appeal court judge Sir Patrick Coghlin is chairing the inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme. Picture by Mal McCann
Retired appeal court judge Sir Patrick Coghlin is chairing the inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme. Picture by Mal McCann Retired appeal court judge Sir Patrick Coghlin is chairing the inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme. Picture by Mal McCann

Last week in the RHI inquiry, Sir Patrick Coghlin asked the media to be fair, balanced and objective in their reporting and to avoid sensationalism where possible.

This is a timely caution from the retired judge as there is a tendency in the modern era to trial by media even when there is a parallel course of due process or judicial inquiry under way.

As a former head of BBC radio news wrote recently in his weekly column: “It’s not the business of a journalist to be either too angry or too loving. Expose, tell it as it is and leave the anger outside the door. Dispassionate, is a key concept.”

It is a difficult balancing act for any journalist, editor, producer, presenter or indeed columnist, especially when the drive behind good investigative journalism is to break a story.

One suspects that the interminable details arising from the RHI inquiry are lost on the general public despite some excellent coverage by local print journalists who have shown tenacious stickability.

The attention of the public won’t really be sharpened until the arrival of the star witnesses who are all political players - ministers and their special advisers.

Though last week it was the turn of the current head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, David Sterling, to give evidence to the inquiry. As pointed out by the inquiry chairman, the witnesses are just that. They are not on trial. Mr Sterling was formerly the permanent secretary of the department which oversaw the rollout of the RHI scheme. In fairness, in this debacle he was not at the operational level.

Whilst his RHI evidence was interesting it was his remarks about the ‘kitchen culture’ that prevailed amongst the DUP and Sinn Féin dominated executive and their senior civil servants which attracted media interest.

Listening to him I couldn’t work out if Mr Sterling actually understood the import of what he was saying or the consequences that would flow from it. And flow they did.

Mr Sterling appeared to confirm what good investigative journalists in Northern Ireland had always suspected, that there was a conscious decision taken at the most senior levels of government to ‘frustrate’ Freedom of Information requests. This startling admission is far from acceptable in an age of transparency and accountability.

That the civil service became complicit in this process is also unacceptable and is a sign that there needs to be root and branch radical restructuring and re-conditioning of the culture as well as the organisation of the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

The systems of oversight don’t appear to work in Northern Ireland either. Politicians have at times shown complete disregard for the Public Appointments Commissioner. Perhaps it’s because they have got away with it so often without any real censure from that office. They certainly haven’t paid too much attention to some of the other commissioners either, whether they be for victims, children or senior citizens. Was this minute taking practice as outlined by the head of the civil service run past the Information Commissioner? If not, why not? If the office of the Information Commissioner or indeed the Ombudsman’s office doesn’t want to look as useful as two ashtrays on a motor bike, they need to assert the relevance of their respective offices.

Mr Sterling also said that both Sinn Féin and DUP ministers were “sensitive to criticism.” Glass jaw syndrome in Northern Ireland political circles is more rampant than an outbreak of nits in a P1 class. And this is despite our former executive being stuffed with a phalanx of media advisers and press managers.

It’s quite touching that civil servants empathised with the media sensitivities of their political masters in both the DUP and Sinn Féin but that’s not really their job.

Mr Sterling’s remarks have apparently laid bare a startling lack of confidence by devolved ministers. The public certainly don’t think of Poots, Foster or Givan as shrinking violets. Or that O Muilleoir, O’Neill and Hazzard are anything else other than loquacious media performers.

As important as the RHI inquiry is, this rare glimpse of life inside the mindset of the DUP/Sinn Féin executive is as fascinating as it is worrying.

Sometimes media may conflate several issues to attract the interest of the public but, if true, what we are hearing now is a concerted attempt to thwart public interest.

Clearly Sinn Féin and the DUP appear to agree on certain things.