All talk, no shop.

Devolution has managed to create a boom market for the veritable army of quangoists, professional talking shoppers and “expert” “advisors” who stalk the streets of Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh looking for their next payday:

THE Assembly Government yesterday rejected allegations it was “talking to itself on a monumental scale” as details were revealed of more than 260 advisory groups launched since devolution.

Ninety “task and finish groups” alone have been set up to advise the Labour-Plaid Cymru Government on policy.

And since 1999, 267 have been established – including 105 in health and social services.

Sixty-nine have been in existence for more than two years, even though guidelines state the groups should wind up after 12 months.

Conservative AM Darren Millar, who obtained the information, said the Assembly Government had created a “talking shop culture”.

However, the Assembly Government has rejected his call for a review of task and finish groups to establish their impact on policy.

Why? After all, one more talking shop to analyse (slowly) the effectiveness of the other other talking shops is not too much to ask for?

Mr Millar has demanded ministers reveal the costs of the groups over the last nine years.

And that wouldn’t be too difficult to find out, surely there will be records somewhere of budgets and exact expenditure?