ALL BUT nine Northern schools are fit to accept students for the start of the new term after setbacks caused by the severe weather and the resulting water crisis.
About 300 homes and businesses are still without any water supplies while the number with interrupted supply has been reduced to about 10,000.
Minister for Education Caitríona Ruane congratulated school staff for working effectively since Christmas to minimise disruption and ensure that virtually all schools are ready to open after the holidays.
Her Sinn Féin colleague Conor Murphy is facing further political calls to resign as Minister for Regional Development in the wake of the water supply fiasco and his handling of Northern Ireland Water, the government-owned company with responsibility for water and sewage services in the North.
Sinn Féin has dismissed such calls.
Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott said: “It is obvious that Minister Murphy and his self-appointed clique on the board of NI Water are not accepting any responsibility for the fiasco of lack of preparation to deal with the crisis and the communication structure being such a mess.”
He added that there “should be no option for the Minister but to vacate his post along with his personal appointees on the board”.
“If Minister Murphy doesn’t follow this course of action, he is further pulling the credibility of the . . . Executive, with the Sinn Féin/DUP partnership at its head, into question and disrepute.”
The SDLP also blamed the Minister for the crisis which has seen some households without water for nearly three weeks.
South Belfast Assembly member Conall McDevitt said Mr Murphy should accept blame for what went wrong and he claimed that the Minister’s plans to bring water under full public control would lead to higher water charges.
“Conor Murphy made a speech in the Assembly on September 13th, but since then neither he nor his party have been able to provide any detail whatsoever on how he intends to do this,” Mr McDevitt said.
“In November he was asked to provide details at the Regional Development Committee. He could provide none and . . . refused to say when he would be able to bring proposals forward.
“The only thing we know for sure is that changing the status of NI Water could cost up to an extra £55 million [€64 million] a year, a cost which ratepayers would have to absorb.”
Last night Sinn Féin hit back at the criticisms of Mr Murphy.
Leader of the party Assembly group John O’Dowd said: “People should be under no illusions. If either the DUP or UUP had been in control [of Mr Murphy’s department], water charges would have been introduced years ago.
“Instead of petty pathetic politicking. . . let both unionist parties make it clear where they stand on the future governance of NI Water when Conor Murphy presents proposals on future governance shortly.”
A review of the provision of water and waste services and the performance of NI Water is due to take place once homes and firms have been reconnected.