Debate contribution: Investment Strategy for Northern Ireland

Debate contribution by Ms Paula Bradshaw on 14 October 2025.

MLA

Ms Paula Bradshaw

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

14 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Investment Strategy for Northern Ireland

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5180566

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I support the motion because a case for an investment strategy for Northern Ireland is actually one of the most urgent and important issues before us. It is a test of our ability to plan for the future and not just react to the present. Like many across the Chamber, I share real disappointment at the continued failure to publish and implement it. As I said, we will support the motion, despite the inclusion of the words "petty rows". The commitment to a new investment strategy was first made in 'New Decade, New Approach', with the aim of providing a clear framework for planning our hospitals, schools, transport links, housing and digital infrastructure. It was meant to give Northern Ireland a long-term road map for sustainable growth, looking as far ahead as 2050. When the draft investment strategy was put out for consultation in early 2022, people, rightly, expected that the Assembly would follow through to produce a clear, costed plan showing how public money would be prioritised and spent. Instead, the Assembly collapsed, and although Executive Office officials reviewed the consultation responses, the process stalled. The Executive, as we know, were restored in February 2024, and the Programme for Government was launched in February 2025; and there was, rightly, an expectation that the investment strategy would be produced and published to sit alongside it. Yet, almost five years after the original commitment, we still have no published strategy. That is a missed opportunity to think long-term about not just physical infrastructure but technological investment, digital connectivity and climate resilience. The previous investment strategy covered the period up to 2021 and guided capital investment worth around £21 billion. Since then, in Northern Ireland, senior officials across the various Departments have been operating without a strategic framework and road map to enable them to plan effectively and deliver value for money, and the consequences of that failure are plain to see. Infrastructure pressures are worsening, projects are delayed and the costs continue to rise every month as the priorities drift. However, the cost of inaction is measured not only in money but in missed opportunities and loss of confidence. Between 2019 and 2023, the estimated cost of major capital projects rose by almost 40%. Waste water capacity has stalled thousands of new homes across all our constituencies, and I can certainly think of some examples in South Belfast. Key transport and regeneration projects, such as the Belfast Rapid Transit route through South Belfast, require investment and planning. We have faced repeated hold-ups and uncertainty, and the leader of the Opposition highlighted some of those examples in his speech, such as Casement Park. Other parts of these islands are not standing still. The Republic of Ireland's national development plan commits over €160 billion to infrastructure investment. Scotland and Wales already have clear, long-term frameworks that set out their priorities, and they are delivering on them, yet Northern Ireland continues to fall behind, not because we lack ability or ambition but because we lack coordination and leadership. We are very much just as capable as those other parts of these islands when it comes to setting and delivering on the standards that are required by our constituents, but we must prove that through delivery. Every week, we hear in the Chamber what happens when there is no investment strategy. Departments are moving out of sync, working at different speeds and competing for resources instead of collaborating. That is entirely counterproductive, and it undermines the efficiency of government here. The absence of a strategy is not just a failure of planning; it does a disservice to our taxpayers and ratepayers who fund our public services. In turn, without a clear framework, MLAs on our scrutiny Committees are unable to hold Ministers to account and scrutinise how billions of pounds of capital investment are spent. The Strategic Investment Board (SIB) has the statutory responsibility and expertise to lead on that work, but it cannot do so effectively without clear political leadership from the Executive. Publishing the strategy would give the authority and continuity that is required to allow the board to move forward with planning and delivery, even in times of uncertainty. As we know, we have political stalemate and ineffectiveness at certain times during our mandates. We need to send a clear message that we are serious about delivery through an investment strategy. The draft investment strategy 2025 needs to be brought to the Executive and signed off. We need to get it published. I will leave my remarks there.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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