From the Irish News:
Peter O’Reilly is understood to have decided to walk way from the leading role at the end of last week.
The senior firefighter, who was the chief fire officer in Greater Manchester at the time of the 2017 bombing at an Ariana Grande concert, only took over the post with the NIFRS in September.
But it is believed that Mr O’Reilly, who is originally from Co Antrim, was frustrated by the slow progress in his efforts to modernise the service since taking over the role.
The key part of the story is the ‘frustrated by the slow progress in his efforts to modernise the service’ bit. Generally, people and organisations hate change, but in Northern Ireland we really hate change.
Back in December the chief executive of Invest NI, Kevin Holland quit after just two years in the role.
There are broader questions here over our structures of government. Time and again we have seen reforms in health, education and over areas go nowhere. Not only is this frustrating for the staff and citizens but it also means you can’t attract talent if they think joining or leading a dysfunctional organisation would be at best a waste of their time or at worst a complete head wreck.
Stormont does not work. Most of our public services are a mess. Is Northern Ireland ungovernable?
Photo: KELVIN BOYES/PRESS EYE
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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