Finance Minister Conor Murphy plays down not having a head of the NI Civil Service

Despite knowing from before they entered office in January that David Sterling was retiring as their top official in August, the first and deputy first ministers did not even advertise the job until mid-July – and then, in a process where they personally interviewed the final three candidates, they rejected every one of those applicants.

Stormont Castle has declined to confirm whether Mrs Foster and Ms O’Neill were unable to agree.

During Assembly questions this afternoon, SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole reminded Mr Murphy that the New Decade, New Approach deal which restored devolution in January spoke of civil service reform flowing from the RHI scandal. He asked: “How do you think we can do any of those things without a head of the civil service?”

The Sinn Féin minister replied: “Well, I think we can because ...it’s not ideal, and I would prefer if there was a head of the civil service, but our department’s responsible for bringing forward proposals and we’re already working on all of the areas you’ve outlined”.

He said that the Executive will have to agree on the reforms “and hopefully by that stage that issue will have been addressed, but I want to assure you that the absence of the Head of the Civil Service won’t delay me or my department from bringing forward the necessary proposals.”

The top official in Mr Murphy’s department, Sue Gray, was one of the front-runners for the top civil service post but was rejected by Mrs Foster and Ms O’Neill along with two other permanent secretaries at Stormont departments – Richard Pengelly at health and Peter May at justice.

Three weeks ago, Mr O’Toole asked Mr Murphy about the appointment of the head of the civil service.

At that time, Mr Murphy said that if an individual was appointed in the near future that person “from what I have seen of the shortlist, will be a permanent secretary, so they will be very much cognisant not only of the outworkings of the RHI Inquiry but the Executive’s clear view in accepting the Inquiry’s recommendations and undertaking to implement those recommendations and the work that has been done to date on the various codes”.

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