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Northern Ireland election

Election 07 graphic

Watch out Translink

  • Mark Devenport
  • 23 Apr 07, 06:01 PM

Stormont was fairly quiet today, with Sinn Fein grabbing the headlines by confirming former IRA prisoner Martina Anderson as one of their three nominees to the Policing Board. Her fellow Foyle MLA, the DUP's Willie Hay, watched the announcement from the Great Hall balcony, but there's still no confirmation that he will be the Speaker.

Whilst all eyes will be on the new Executive ministers, the local parties are still sorting out their "SPADs", the Special Advisors who will work behind the scenes. Aidan McAteer and Dara O'Hagan are two of Sinn Fein's three at the OFMDFM, where it looks like their DUP counterparts will be Timothy Johnston and Emma Little. The SDLP's Brian Barrington will make a return appearance with their only minister Margaret Ritchie.

Some MLAs are already plotting what the Stormont committees they will sit on might get their teeth into. One politician who expects to be on the new Public Accounts Committee predicts its first probe will look at Translink and the relaying of the Belfast to Bangor railway line. Back in March an Audit Office report said "serious management deficiencies" led to the 2001 project costing 拢34m - twice the original budget - and running nine months late.

Comments   Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 08:04 PM on 23 Apr 2007,
  • Kevin Sullivan wrote:

Public transport is so expensive in Belfast; why? The Public Accounts Committee should look into all of the mismanagement of our public transport system. Why would people leave their cars at home when it is so expensive to use public transport and it is very unreliable, also the drivers are unhelpful and rude as a matter of course.

  • 2.
  • At 06:49 PM on 24 Apr 2007,
  • Ulster25 wrote:

I think the service offered by NIR in particular has improved substantially in the past few years. Punctuality is slowly returning and the attitude of the staff is massively better than when I first started using the train some years ago.

The issiue of the huge overrun on the Bangor should be looked at as we must be confident that NIR/Translink can handle large scale capital investment. There is a massive case for investing in the line to Derry but we must be assured that the same thing will not happen again if the investment does take place. Perhaps the PAC would like to look at the Springvale report from the NIAO which appeared last November.

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