Politicians should stop playing tribal games with road safety

1.30.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 14th Apr 2006

Young Alliance Chair Ian James Parsley has condemned politicians trying to make nationalistic points on road safety policy, in the light of the suggestion that the island of Ireland should differentiate its road markings and units from Great Britain.

The North Down Councillor stated: "Hundreds of lives are lost on Irish roads each year, yet our politicians choose to use road safety to score silly tribal points rather than deal with the issue in a way that is realistic and feasible.

"There is simply no evidence at all to suggest drivers crossing the border are 'confused' by separate markings, units or warning signs. Small wonder so few people bother to vote when politicians go about insulting their intelligence!

"It is patently a pathetic 'tribal' point to say that the island or Ireland should have common markings and units while differentiating itself from Great Britain. Given the many thousands of tourists from Great Britain who head to Ireland each year by car, and the thousands of people heading the other way for business and pleasure, would a common British Isles standard not make logical sense? But you don't get anyone suggesting that -- because it doesn't suit their tribal aspiration.

"In truth, the prime reason that border areas suffer such high road casualty rates is the failure to implement a common penalty points standard -- again not just on the island of Ireland, but across the whole of the British Isles. But why should politicians deal with such an obvious, logical and reasonable requirement when there are tribal points to be scored?

"That is the pathetic reality of tribal politics -- it subsumes everything, even the very serious issue of hundreds of lives lost on our roads. And that is why 'tribal politics costs', and that is why it must be abandoned."

ENDS

NOTE: The Republic of Ireland is the only European country which uses yellow-diamond warning signs rather than the red circles/triangles standard in the rest of Europe.