Brussels-based European Commission economist and former SDLP assembly man, Hugh Logue, has started work at Stormont for Seamus Mallon and the director of the Commission office in Dublin, Colm Larkin, may soon be joining him. Both men are from Co Derry, and although no final decision has yet been taken on Larkin, it is understood that the Deputy First Minister asked the Commission in July to allow both Eurocrats join him as special advisers.
Larkin is anxious to go North, but stresses that any secondment would not be to a political party but to service the new executive. The Commission, he says, is neutral, but has been supportive of the Belfast Agreement and wants to see it implemented. While Logue is already in situ, Larkin's secondment is delayed not just by the Commission's desire to avoid political controversy in the North, but by considerations on who will replace him in Dublin. He will probably take up the position in the new year on an initial two-year contract.
While both men were requested by Mallon, David Trimble will have his own set of advisers, a cabinet system is planned, where both first and deputy minister, as well as ministers, will seek advice from the same pool on making the agreement work and running the new departments, the North-South bodies, the British Irish Council and the consultative councils. It had been expected the executive, as opposed to the shadow executive, would be in place by February, but things are progressing so well, despite the unionist difficulty over contact with Sinn Fein, it is now believed it could be earlier.