Member's statement: Roads Maintenance
Member's statement by Mr Stephen Dunne on .
- MLA
- Mr Stephen Dunne
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 27 January 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Roads Maintenance
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5344939
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I rise today to highlight a real crisis on our roads network right across Northern Ireland. Our roads are in a shocking and dangerous condition in rural and urban areas in every corner of the country. Our roads are lined with thousands of wheel-wrecking potholes that are damaging tyres and suspension and only adding costly repair bills to hard-pressed families during these difficult times. It appears that the Infrastructure Minister has lost control of her Department and has really failed to get on top of the issue. It is a clear dereliction of duty, given the significance of road safety and basic road maintenance across our roads network. Taxpayers rightly expect safe roads. Rather than focusing on divisive vanity projects, the Minister needs to get back to basics and fix our roads. For too long, our roads have deteriorated. We saw it happen under the previous Minister, John O'Dowd, and it has got even worse under Minister Kimmins, who has now been in post for one year. The same Department that demands that our cars and vehicles are kept safe and in roadworthy condition totally fails when it comes to the condition of our roads. This is a roads crisis, and people want urgent action, a clear plan and decisive action to fix it. People rightly do not want compensation forms; they want safe roads. Compensation forms are purely an admission of failure from the Department and the Minister. There also needs to be a much greater balance between often generously funded active travel schemes and basic road maintenance, which has been totally neglected over the past number of years. Importantly, it also undermines the road safety messaging coming from the Department when our roads are in such poor condition. It compromises that important message. Motorists and all road users are impacted on and put at great risk from using the road, whether they are pedestrians, passengers, drivers and all vehicle users. In my constituency, the A2 dual carriageway from Bangor to Belfast carries over 40,000 vehicles daily. A hard-working gentleman hit a pothole on Friday morning when driving to work, and it resulted in a damage repair bill of £450. That is just one constituent, but it is an example of how the Department for Infrastructure and the Infrastructure Minister are failing our communities, taxpayers and residents right across Northern Ireland. It is time for the Minister to stop deflecting, stop the excuses and fix our roads.
408 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
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: 0.03 (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 (0.93).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- 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
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.93 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.99 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:20 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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