Durkan versus Durkan

This week Staff at Bobballs have been concerned about the absence of the Executive and the disjointed nature of democratic accountability (yip, we’re geeks).

The SDLP has made some strong running on the performances of decision-makers. And Mark Durkan was on The Politics Show today where he referred to inertia caused by the absence of the Executive.

We too are troubled by the absence of decision-makers... in the DETI Committee, for example. Given the economic climate, this is an area of government performance which must be enhanced through strong committee scrutiny.

But wait! The Executive isn't the only place affected by absenteeism. The DETI Committee Chairman has managed to make it to only 77% of meetings and is the least punctilious of all departmental committee chairmen in showing up.

The Chairman in question? Erm... Mark Durkan.

No doubt Mark will be on The Politics Show next week to ask himself some fairly ruthless and searching questions.

[All members – excepting the exemplary Simon Hamilton – have a curious relationship with DETI committee meetings. Attendance is pretty much all over the place. But there’s no question that when Durkan turns up, he leads proceedings well with a blend of humour and detailed insight (yip, we’re geeks).]