“an appointment can be made by Christmas…”
The difficulty for the First and Deputy First Ministers is that if they did admit to disagreeing on the long-delayed appointment of a Victims’ Commissioner it would be seen as confirmation of this analysis. Meanwhile a Belfast Telegraph report quotes two anonymous sources within the same [OFDFM] Department who take slightly different views on the matter than the official spokesman for the two ministers.
But an OFMDFM spokesman said: “There is no intention to readvertise the position and the issue is still with the First and Deputy First Minister.”
And those other two sources..
The First Minister’s Office is understood to have sought legal advice amid concerns the move to re-advertise could bring another High Court challenge, potentially from those already on the shortlist for the post.
But a senior source said: “As things stand, the First and Deputy First Minister are agreed that none of the current applications are suitable and they intend to go for a wider pool of people.”
Another source said that while a final decision still had to be taken: ” We are confident that if it is re-advertised, an appointment can be made by Christmas.”
And who was on that short-list..
Hold on, what’s this issue doing with the FM and DFM.
Is it not supposed to be a public appointment?
You know, like, on merit?
IJP
I have followed this quite carefully, as I know someone who met all the criteria for the post but was not short listed.
It appears that those who were short listed did not neccesarily meet any criteria other than that of being politically well connected.
I do not recall anything Lady Trimble or Mike Nesbitt has written on victims’ issues, one of the main hinges of the job. I could go on, but I think that it must be accpepted that this post is not being decided on merit, rather an acceptable compromise on political grounds
At this point, I am beginning to feel that the post should be re-advertised and that an independent agency should recruit. The recruitment for this post was handled through the NIO, and as you may have seen, the original short list was completed in 24 hours.
Stinks to high heaven really
totally agree miss fitz but they are right, lets wait until christmas and ask santa if he wants it:-)
Alhtough to Slugger contributors (myself included)the apppointment seems in obvious breach of the merit principle, BBC reporting has focused on an obvious lack of agreement between First Minister and his Deputy and seems to accept that they have the last word. What a precedent for future appointments and one which is sure to result in legal challenges. Will they never learn? And do victims/survivors not deserve something better than using the post to reward the likes of Trimble etc?
Isn’t some lecturer called Marie Smyth (I think) up for the post?
The independent recruitment agency sounds like an excellent idea.
The NIO has spent quite a bit of time recently trying to give the impression that it isn’t giong to re-advertise the position…
All I can say is Paisley and McGuinness sure as hell don’t have careers as recruitment managers ahead of them when the government here goes tits up. Perhaps they are waiting for all the victims to die of old age so they don’t need a commissioner.
Yes Miss Fitz
Quite incredible really. The courts ruled that the last appointment was political and here we are wanting to do that again. I understood that this was a position to be appointed on merit following a transparent ansd fair recruitment and selection process. If that process has run its course there either is or isn’t a suitable candidate who should be ofered the job.
I actually think that the position is now totally tainted and that the position and role of any victims commissioner should be rethought