Member's statement: Infrastructure Failures and Delays

Member's statement by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 24 June 2025.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

24 June 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Infrastructure Failures and Delays

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5046497

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Like my colleague Sinéad McLaughlin, I want to touch on yesterday's judgement on the A5, but I will not spend all my time talking about the A5, because that judgement is a symptom of a much deeper problem that is at the heart of our system of government and our politics: incompetence and a crisis of accountability. Yesterday's judgement was shocking. People are alive now who will lose their life as a result of the A5's being delayed. Justice McAlinden was quite clear about that in his judgement yesterday. The A5 has been the subject of repeated delays and challenges. Later today, we will have the opportunity to debate the ineptitude of the Department in how it managed yesterday's appeal, but it is clear that it is part of a systemic problem with governance in Northern Ireland. We need only look at the other delays in critical infrastructure: reviving NI Water; delivering on the maternity hospital at the Royal; and the failure, after a few weeks, to get going on Northern Ireland's housing targets as set out in the Programme for Government. Although 6,000 houses were promised in two years, barely a thousand will be started this year, if we are lucky. It gets to the heart of a problem — a crisis — that we have in this society and these politics, which is that the public do not trust us to deliver on the things that matter to them. People in the west of Ulster — the whole Province of Ulster — are worried about the safety of their families because the A5 will not now be built for a long time. People looking at Lough Neagh will be wondering whether that precious natural resource will ever recover. People having babies in the years to come will wonder whether they will be able to have those babies in a proper state-of-the-art maternity unit. We have failed consistently to show leadership. The two big parties have walked away from government repeatedly — repeatedly — thus delaying the delivery of the A5, delaying the delivery of the maternity hospital and delaying the delivery of Casement Park. This a problem that touches on Civil Service competence, but it also touches on political leadership, because the people who are in charge in this place do not think that politics is about delivery; they think that it is about photo opportunities. They think that it is about getting your mug on social media and in the papers and then, every few years at an election, trading off tribalism and getting back into office. All the while, our public services sink further into disrepair and chaos, and major projects that are essential for the preservation of life are delayed. There is Civil Service incompetence, and there is political leadership. It is a crisis in accountability in our politics in Northern Ireland — a genuine crisis. Mr Speaker, you have talked about the abysmal quality of debate and scrutiny in the Chamber, but it goes beyond that. The official Opposition's job is to stand up and speak for the people —

— of Northern Ireland, who have been failed —

— for far too long.

530 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:52 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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