IT is a heavy burden of responsibility to make decisions that impact on the future of people's lives, that's why so few, even those in elected positions of authority, ever really stick their necks out.

The 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement has raised some tricky questions, not least why we haven’t had a functioning assembly for the last 15 months.

If, as we were told this week, the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) was wonderful, why are a quarter of a million people here waiting for a first hospital appointment with a consultant? If it was such an historic success, why are most of our schools bankrupt and if it represented a breakthrough, why are 370,000 people here still in poverty, including 110,000 children? Don't be silly, you say, the GFA was not about that sort of thing.