The slow pace of progress at Stormont on RHI reforms is hardly a surprise

The Renewable Heat Incentive saga was a scandal that revealed profound problems with governance in Northern Ireland.

It was an environmental scheme in which barely any official or politician seemed to show much interest in the environment or even an awareness that the RHI rollout would have the opposite effect — almost unbelievably, it created an incentive to waste energy.

It was a scheme that showed an assumption of, if not contempt for, endless and profligate funding from the Treasury.

And it was a scheme which revealed that many officials and politicians pay little attention to the details of policies.

But anyone who follows Stormont politics will know that some of these fundamental governing flaws not only persist, they seem entrenched.

There have always been admirable, conscientious and intelligent civil servants and politicians, and yet there is also a tolerance of mediocrity, even at times incompetence.

It is lamentable that only one civil servant was disciplined over RHI and that so few politicians suffered consequences.

Northern Ireland’s Comptroller and Auditor General Keiran Donnelly is righted to be “disappointed” that fewer than half of the RHI Inquiry recommendations have been fully implement, but can anyone be surprised.

Matters such as fiscal discipline and reform of public sector administration have seemed low on Stormont’s list of priorities.

Mr Donnelly called for “this experience [to be] considered to identify any lessons that can be learned and built into the ongoing review of NI civil service disciplinary processes”.

That is certainly a key aim for the civil service.

At the same time, politics ought to be a prestigious and respected sphere of public life that attracts talented people from a wide range of backgrounds. There are already such MLAs but getting more will require a cultural shift in society, the bringing about of which will be no easy feat.

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