Politicians to tackle road safety

By Jim Fitzpatrick Politics Show

The death of Nicola Murray this week in that terrible Cabragh school bus crash, is one of those tragic incidents that all-too-often dominate the news.

However, there's something different about the story this time and its political.

In the midst of their grief the Murray family have issued a plea to politicians here to do whatever they can to ensure the Ballygawley Road is made safer and that future tragedies are avoided.

When news of the crash came through on Wednesday it wasn't long before we heard from the education minister.

Caitriona Ruane, who was quick to speak to the Education Board that ran the bus service, visited the injured in hospital.

Not long after that Environment Minister Arlene Foster was on the airwaves - as road safety minister.

And then we had Conor Murphy, whose regional development department is in charge of road-building, talking about possible engineering improvements that could be made.

Raised expectations

It's clear from the comments of Nicola's father that devolution has created expectations.

It's also clear from the actions of the politicians that they believe these expectations to be reasonable - in the sense that they all talk about the action that they may be able to take.

Conor Murphy's department is responsible for road-building

It's not the first such issue to be given an extra political impetus since devolution returned.

We've seen a cross-party interest in tackling suicide and the executive was quick to offer compensation whenever flash-flooding damaged homes last summer.

There is precedent which suggests politicians taking action can make a difference - such as Scotland's apparent success in reducing the suicide rate - but are there are dangers too in implying that devolution is a panacea?

The complicated nature of the Northern Ireland Executive doesn't make things any easier - demonstrated this week as the media struggled to accurately report where different responsibilities lay in relation to road safety.

In assuming responsibility for issues previously filed under "Acts of God", the politicians will want to be seen to ensure they deliver.

Promising change may not be enough.

On The Politics Show this week I'm joined by one of the ministers who has pledged to deliver on this issue, Conor Murphy.

He's also responsible for finding a formula for water charging.

With news of miscalculations and potential price hikes to come, we'll be exploring where responsibility for this may lie.

After weeks of stories about MPs and MLAs expenses, Rosy returns to the money trail with an examination of how party funding could be reformed.

Robin has more on that

DUP voters

Apologies for a mistake in last week's piece.

I misquoted poll statistics on the devolution of policing and justice.

I gave figures for September 2007 rather than January 2008.

The striking thing, upon realising the mistake, was how support for devolution of policing and justice among DUP voters had fallen over the period.

Not a message the NIO press release chose to headline, but at least their website does offer a link to the full results.

Click here to view the full results

See you Sunday - Jim

PS - The tensions that exist between politicians of different parties and between politicians of all parties and the media were set aside at Stormont on Tuesday in aid of charity.

Around 30 of us walked the Stormont Mile from the gates of the estate to the steps of Parliament Buildings to raise money and awareness for Sport Relief.

As I complained to junior minister Gerry Kelly about my dodgy knee, he confided that he previously suffered from a similar injury.

The medical term was "Long Kesh Knee", apparently brought on by constant walking in circles while in prison.

When he asked the cause of my affliction I mumbled something incoherent.

I didn't quite feel able to reveal that mine was probably caused by over-enthusiastic Wii-playing with my seven-year-old.

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