NI Water – Page 6 – Slugger O'Toole

NI Water: Are the sacked NEDs owed an apology?

Mick Fealty on August 20, 2010, 9:04 pm

| Readers 8

There’s been a spurious row going on about the status of the IRT report. As though somehow it was the critical factor in the sacking of the four Non Executives. It was an important weapon in the Permanent Secretary’s armoury, but it was not the reason the Minister sacked them. The report does not recommend the sacking of the NEDs. It identifies tensions between the CEO and the NEDs. The Permanent Secretary (and not the IRT) recommended the Minister resolve …

Priestly drafted Dixon letter of complaint to PAC

Pete Baker on August 20, 2010, 5:56 pm

| Readers 109

The BBC are reporting, ahead of this evening’s UTV Live [added link], that they have seen an email sent by suspended NI Regional Development Permanent Secretary Paul Priestly to Independent Review Team member Peter Dixon following the 1st July PAC meeting. From the BBC report The email sent by Mr Priestly on 2 July followed a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee. At the meeting questions were asked about the independence of a review into NIW, which led to the sackings. It confirms …

NI Water is the political classes’ big opportunity..

Mick Fealty on August 20, 2010, 9:49 am

| Readers 1

I got this in my mail box from Chambre this morning… There is an opportunity to carve through the morass and leave aside petty politics. Already there has been point scoring. If they were to leave that aside, gain clear answers, translated in a way that the public can understand, then the esteem of politicians would grow. No further comment required… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics …

NI Water investigated by the Information Commissioner…

Mick Fealty on August 19, 2010, 8:09 pm

| Readers 3

With mounting evidence of misdirection of process, and DRD being turned upside looking for hidden emails, Martina Purdy speaks to the Information Commissioner: “…any attempt to thwart that process or to have any interference in that process I think is a very serious issue and subsequent to the information I received I expressed my views on all of that to the Head of the Civil Service.” So that’s an investigation inside DRD and now another one inside NI Water on the …

NI Water: Robinson told Priestly IRT was a bad idea…

Mick Fealty on August 19, 2010, 3:30 pm

| Readers 23

So Paul Priestly is effectively being investigated by his boss, Bruce Robinson. But Slugger understands that when Priestly brought the idea of an Independent Review Team to Robinson, the Head of Northern Ireland Civil Service told him directly that it was a bad idea. So, to repeat something we’ve been asking all through this mess, how can such an investigation be seen to as independent and equitable? Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts …

DRD to meet in private tomorrow…

Mick Fealty on August 19, 2010, 11:55 am

| Readers 1

I would think there are a number of frank exchanges to be had with in the Regional Development Committee tomorrow.. Slugger understands it is to be held in private… Make of that what you will… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

NI Water: Minister pushed the IRT for greater clarity…

Mick Fealty on August 19, 2010, 11:39 am

| Readers 16

Sam McBride has got hold of a note which reports the Minister’s view on the IRT’s initial report, asking them for harder recommendations: In an apparent reference to the Sinn Fein minister, the note states: “CM view: “1) IRT need to set out clearly what the problem is and deal with it in direct way! “2) Must be clear in what IRT are saying – leave as little as pos (presumably possible) to the (illegible word); needs to be explicit! …

The fall of Paul Priestly.

Eamonn Mallie on August 19, 2010, 10:13 am

| Readers 159

To most people including journalists stories about NI Water were a big yawn. For the greater part the story of the goings on in NIW was being addressed by Jamie Delargy of UTV(who is encyclopaedic on this subject), Martina Purdy of the BBC and Mick Fealty of Slugger O Toole. For months an unknown businessman Declan Gormley who was a non executive director of NIW had been seeking to connect with journalists to highlight what he saw as an injustice …

NI Water: Minister backs his own action in sacking NEDs

Mick Fealty on August 19, 2010, 9:41 am

| Readers 4

Eamonn reports on Twitter this morning that the Minister is unrepentant about his sacking of NI Water’s four Non Executive Directors on the questionable evidence of an Independent Review Team that was demonstrably connected a priori to the Chief Executive of NI Water and which was partly written by his now suspended Permanent Secretary. The Minister adds that the IRT “got to the core of issues.” Okay, so perhaps the Minister might like to answer those questions we posed for him last …

NI Water: Why the £28 Million figure is nonsense…

Mick Fealty on August 18, 2010, 11:44 pm

| Readers 16

There was a very tidy read in to the NI Water story from Martina Purdy on Newsline this evening and a very welcome recognition of at least some of Slugger’s role in helping to break what is shaping up to be the major political story of the year. We understand there is a great deal more coming down the line… And in case anyone is thinking this stays inside the NICS, think again… Where has the General Consumer Council been …

Ni Water: Questions for the Minister…

Mick Fealty on August 18, 2010, 7:16 pm

| Readers 4

Interesting to hear Paul Maskey push the line that his Minister took swift and decisive action on members of the NI Water Board. But if his Permanent Secretary’s position is now untenable, so too must be the report on foot of which the Minister sacked the Board. You might have thought. As Jamie Delargy noted this evening on UTV, no one would accept a chief constable having a say in a report into the death of a child in police …

DUP: We need to establish the truth about the role of the Permanent Secretary

Mick Fealty on August 18, 2010, 1:15 pm

| Readers 33

This is a particularly forensic statement from the DUP, which effectively ends what has been (probably by default) a bipartisan line on the NI Water story with Sinn Fein. I’m copying it, less for the political import and more for the nature of the questions it poses. Michelle McIllveen: “This is a deeply serious situation, unprecedented in the Assembly. As Vice-Chairman of the Committee I had already asked for an urgent meeting with the DRD Minister following recent press coverage …

NI Water: All parties should back Dallat’s call for a real Inquiry

Mick Fealty on August 18, 2010, 12:18 pm

| Readers 24

For the first time in the history of Northern Ireland and only the second time in the history of the British Civil Service a Permanent Secretary has been suspended. That’s a big story, and one Slugger has been in somewhat lonely pursuit of since seeing the BBC’s footage of the PAC interrogation of Laurence McKenzie and Paul Priestly. Here’s the straw that broke the camel’s back with regard to Paul Priestly. According to David Gordon, “it is understood evidence emerged yesterday indicating …

DRD Permanent Secretary suspended

Pete Baker on August 17, 2010, 6:19 pm

| Readers 56

UTV Live are reporting [added link] that the Department of Regional Development Permanent Secretary Paul Priestly has been suspended pending an investigation. They also reported that NI Regional Development Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, described his permanent secretary’s position as ‘untenable’. Adds From a News Letter report 14 August Mr Murphy, the Sinn Fein minister responsible for sacking all but one of the non-executive directors based on a report by consultants, has said that he has “full confidence” in his …

NI Water: All hope resiles to the PAC report…

Mick Fealty on August 17, 2010, 2:58 pm

| Readers 6

It’s worth looking at what purports to be a communication from Laurence McKenzie in an internal memo to his staff… and that of the Minister on UTV… Both, it seems, are pinning their hopes on the PAC’s report (another of Mr Priestley’s attempts to manage the outcomes of other people’s work). But as the News Letter notes this morning, the Minister’s explanation is undermined by the e-mail exchanges between Laurence McKenzie and Peter Dixon… Not mention Paul Priestley’s suggested changes, which the …

NI Water: UTV finger ‘Mr Priestley’s Problem’…

Mick Fealty on August 17, 2010, 1:41 pm

| Readers 17

I’ve heard a few dismissive comments on last night’s programme on how the Permanent Secretary directed the so called Independent Review Team to re-write their report so that all criticism would transfer from him to the Board of NI Water. But for me, here’s the nub: Paul Priestley’s changes to the IRT, which I would recommend anyone who still has doubts about Mr Priestley’s culpability in this regard. Here’s Jamie Delargy: In documents obtained by UTV we can disclose how he …

NI Water: After listing his concerns, McKenzie makes a radical suggestion

Mick Fealty on August 16, 2010, 11:07 pm

| Readers 12

There’s enough in the UTV programme for a great deal more threads. But here’s something that was new even to Slugger. It relates to McKenzie’s bizarre resignation over what amounts to a few minor irregularities in procurement (by which I mean these were monies legally spent, and which the Department was not in a position to claim back)… MacKenzie had enough and resigned on Monday morning Jan 18. He told the Department for Regional Development which oversees the water company. …

NI Water: UTV Live report tonight…

Mick Fealty on August 16, 2010, 10:01 am

| Readers 9

The UTV late news programme should return tonight with a hour long special report on Northern Ireland Water. It’s scheduled for after the Ten O’Clock News, and will feature a documentary piece with an extended interview with the Minister and a panel discussion in which I hope to take part. We should have the video available here on Slugger by tomorrow am, if you miss it. In the meantime, I am hoping they will produce material that will put Slugger’s …

NI Water: “It was brought to my attention, investigated and I took action.”

Pete Baker on August 12, 2010, 7:33 pm

| Readers 18

As well as revealing his “reservations” about police services, the Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, also gave the Irish News his first recorded comments about the troubled NI Water Board, and his emergency appointees. Or, rather, his first recorded comments about the questions surrounding the Independent Review Team. From the Irish News Mr Murphy said he believed people with an “axe to grind” were querying the inquiry. “What I am aware of is there has been a campaign to attack …

NI Water: CEO crunched by dual responsibilities?

Mick Fealty on August 6, 2010, 8:58 pm

| Readers 27

By demand, here’s a chart explaining the different primary relationships within and between DRD and NI Water. The complexity was introduced by the introdcution of the designation “Sub Accounting Officer” for the CEO, Mr McKenzie. It may or may not make things clearer for those of you who still care. This was on foot of a Treasury regulation which kicked in when the central ‘subsidy’ for Water Rates hit a certain level. Although Lian Patterson, the deputy Perm Sec told …