John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

I also feel the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister should be saluted for the extraordinary patience and determination they brought to the peace process. We are fortunate to have those leaders in place to bring us to the point we have reached. In the past we frequently characterised events such as the Good Friday Agreement as historic, and they were in their time, but I was always cautious about applying such a term because we often found such events to be false dawns. In this case it is fair to describe the event as historic and I believe it heralds a new future for Northern Ireland which will see ordinary, democratic politics prevailing with people managing their affairs.

It was striking that much of the discussion over the weekend saw people get down to the nitty gritty of democratic politics on topics such as infrastructure, education, health and so on. These are the matters that should concern politicians in Northern Ireland and it is extraordinary to think they would not want to take control of such matters in their country.

I live about 200 yards from where the events on the M7 occurred this morning. Several people I have spoken to have told me about the way people were driving before the accidents took place. It seems many cars were weaving in and out trying to get lorries out of their way. The one lesson from this relates to something that is common in all other countries but not at all common here, that is signs over motorways that light up to tell people of problems ahead or to slow down. I agree that speed limit signs are not always effective but signs that light up, change frequently and provide warning notices should be considered. The National Roads Authority, NRA, has a signage programme that is about to begin and it should consider this type of sign.