Ministers point finger at top civil servant

DIFFICULT conversations should have been had about the way Education was being run, it has been claimed.

Housing minister Deputy Dave Jones said that given the severity of recommendations and views in the review of the department by Denis Mulkerrin, the director of education's continued service was open to question.

'The chief executive of the States is clearly the man at the top of the civil service tree and if there have been failings among senior staff at Education then it's his job to roll his sleeves up and get to the bottom of why that was.

Mr Brown said yesterday, however, that as he had previously stated, it was the policy of the States not to discuss specific issues relating to individual civil servants.