Member's statement: A5 Western Transport Corridor: High Court Ruling

Member's statement by Mrs Deborah Erskine on 24 June 2025.

MLA: Mrs Deborah Erskine
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 24 June 2025
Type: Member's statement
Business: Members' Statements
Heading: A5 Western Transport Corridor: High Court Ruling
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5046516

Text

I know that, later today, there will be a question for urgent oral answer to the Minister, but, listening to the rhetoric in the Chamber this morning about the A5, I feel that it is important to stand up and put on record some facts for people, particularly the SDLP. At the outset, I say that my sympathies are with all those who have lost loved ones or have been seriously injured along the A5 route.
Everybody in the argument understands that there is a road safety concern with the A5, but it is also about fairness for people in how that project is delivered. Climate change — the climate change legislation with the net zero targets — was the main factor in the decision at the High Court yesterday. I would like to remind the SDLP that its Infrastructure Minister was in place when that climate change legislation went through the Assembly. It should have realised the consequences for the Department for Infrastructure from the net zero targets in the Climate Change Act. That is fact. The DUP consistently raised in the Chamber at that time the point that those net zero targets were going to have a severe impact on Departments and the Executive, yet those clear concerns were not heeded by the SDLP. In fact, it wanted tougher and stricter net zero targets. I find it quite funny, therefore, that, over the past 24 hours, the SDLP, which is supposed to be such an effective Opposition here at Stormont, is now rolling back on the climate change and net zero targets that it hailed in the Assembly in 2022. It is rolling back on those. I heard it yesterday in the media, so I find it quite hypocritical of the SDLP that its Members would stand up in the Chamber today and roll back. The Climate Change Act needs to be repealed because of the problems that it has created for the delivery of major road infrastructure projects. I am concerned about what that will mean for infrastructure in Northern Ireland. I am glad to see that the SDLP has come late to the party and joined the DUP in recognising those problems. Lastly, farmers are facing huge uncertainty about their land that has been vested, stripped and left unrecognisable. I hope that, following the High Court ruling, that uncertainty is lifted very quickly for those affected landowners.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.

Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.15 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.74).
No identity-based framing was identified (0.98).
The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.

This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.

Jev’s structured answers

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.11	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.06	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.02	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.18	No
Controversy escalation	0.08	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.74	Yes
Overall judgement	0.15	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing (chosen)	0.98
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it	0.00
Adopts it	0.02

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
No identity-related subject	0.91
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations	0.04
Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty	0.02
Another identity-related subject	0.02
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.01

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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