Debate contribution: Road Maintenance

Debate contribution by Mr Mark Durkan on 16 February 2026.

MLA

Mr Mark Durkan

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

16 February 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Road Maintenance

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5391882

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Across the North, our roads are failing. Potholes are not just inconvenient; they are a visible symptom of crumbling public services. We can all see and feel that. Sometimes, it seems as though DFI does not repair potholes any more but just moves them around so that motorists cannot memorise them. After years of temporary patches and repeated repairs, it is no exaggeration to say that Roads Service is in danger of becoming more like "Roads Circus". Front-line workers do their jobs in difficult conditions — rain, frost, gales, heavy traffic — and they deserve support and appreciation, not blame. The problem lies with the system, which is underfunded, reactive and failing to plan. DFI continues to rely heavily on monitoring rounds to top up the road maintenance budget, and that restricts its ability to invest in proper strategic resurfacing.

Such an approach is costly, inefficient and unsafe. It leaves roads vulnerable, fails to prevent further deterioration and increases the risk to road users.

We also cannot ignore the impact that five years without a functioning Executive has had on our roads. The signatories to the motion and the Minister's party should reflect on that. During that time, strategic planning was stalled, funding cycles were delayed and roads were left to deteriorate while repairs remained patchwork. There were no monitoring rounds to top up the flat budget that the Department was getting for road maintenance. Potholes are not just an annoyance but a risk to life. Cyclists and, in particular, motorcyclists run the risk of being thrown from their vehicle. Drivers swerve dangerously. Pedestrians face uneven pavements. Emergency vehicle drivers navigate roads that compromise their safety and the safety of those onboard. The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) has already warned that inspection and enforcement of road reinstatements is weak. Utility companies come along and dig up roads — we have heard that — but standards are not enforced and repairs fail, and the public then pay the price. Sometimes, they pay it twice. We have heard that, over the past five years, almost 20,000 claims as a result of pothole damage have been made. More than £20·6 million has been paid out in compensation, rising to over £32 million when legal costs are included. That figure is going up every single year. Although motorists may be lucky enough to recoup some of the costs of repairs that their vehicle needs, that goes no way towards making up for the inconvenience that many of them suffer. People rely on their cars for their livelihood and even more so for day-to-day life. In five years, there have been roughly 400 recorded repairs to vehicles damaged on the Strand Road in Derry, yet no central record of the cost of those repairs exists. That is 400 repairs with no accounting. As recently as last year, I was still being told that that carriageway should be grand until 2035. I welcomed the Minister's recent announcement that resurfacing of that road is to be carried out in the very near future. Again, however, the Strand Road is symptomatic of the state of roads right across my constituency and the rest of the North. I previously made the point in here that Donegal roads used to be the butt of Derry drivers' jokes. The shoe is now very much on the other foot. I am not suggesting that, in a new Ireland, the streets will be paved with gold, but they will at least be paved. The Department is bringing forward its new road maintenance strategy. We welcome that. It will set out a structured, evidence-based approach to prioritising repairs, investing in durable resurfacing and targeting high-risk routes. We have called for that for a long time. It is important to ensure —.

I thank the Member for her intervention. I made the point about the impact that potholes can have on people who rely on the roads to make their living. Obviously, the more that someone is on our roads, the more exposed that they are to the risk of vehicle damage and to danger. As we move to having a promised new multi-year Budget, will DFI be sufficiently empowered to implement the road maintenance strategy fully, or will it continue to rely on monitoring rounds to top up its budget? Will it even be able to rely on monitoring rounds to do so? We need proper inspection and quality assurance to ensure that repairs last, coordinated works to protect newly resurfaced roads, transparent cost tracking so that the public can see exactly where and how their money is being spent and sustained multi-year investment to make the road maintenance strategy a reality. Preventative maintenance is common sense. It saves lives and saves money. We must move from patchwork to proper planning, from reaction to prevention and from frustration to accountability. As I said, our crumbling roads are a symptom of our crumbling public services. It is time that we treated them as such, decisively —

— visibly and without excuses.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:56 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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