The shelves of Stormont’s government departments are already creaking under the accumulated weight of the volumes of expert reports gathered over the years and which contain recommendations about how to improve some important aspect of public services.

It is the instinct of ministers and their civil servants to order these reports at the first sign of trouble. When an issue is too thorny, whether because of its political implications or the sheer difficulty it presents, the impulse is to try and kick the can so far down the road that the original problem is likely to have receded from the headlines. Even if it hasn’t, the hope is that the heat will have gone out of the controversy, or that it will have become someone else’s problem.

If that sounds too cynical, it’s worth pointing out that - to take but one example - the Bengoa Report and its recommendations for transforming health and social care has spent much of the time........

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